Why England Can Win The Women's World Cup

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England kick off their Women's World Cup campaign this week vs Haiti. But with stars like Beth Mead, Leah Williamson, and Fran Kirby all out through injury, the Lionesses have lost their tag as favorites. Can they still do it? Adam Clery thinks so.

Transcript

00:00 Hi there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and this week, wonderful news, football's

00:09 back. A major international tournament that England go into as one of, if not the team

00:14 to beat. That does not happen enough in this life. But two facts for you that will form

00:19 the basis of this video. Fact the first, the England team that won the Women's European

00:24 Championships would be going into this World Cup as probably the big, big favourites. Fact

00:30 the second, the England team that won the Women's European Championships are not going

00:34 into this World Cup. Not really. So the question then becomes, can they still win the thing?

00:39 And the answer to that one is, oh God, oh God yes. And here's why.

00:43 Okay, so we'll start last summer. England won their first ever European Championships.

00:50 It was great, you remember, Chloe Kelly got that goal and out of time they beat the Germans

00:54 at Wembley. What's not to like? And this is the team that started that game. In fact,

00:59 that's also the team that started the semi-final and it's the team that started the quarter-final.

01:02 It's the team that started every single group game because Serena Wiegmann, she named the

01:06 same 11 for every single match in that tournament. Partially a case of if it ain't broke, don't

01:11 fix it. But it's more like if you've got this brilliant system and some of the best players

01:15 in the world are really good at playing it, don't just start messing with it for no reason.

01:19 And that's exactly what it was. It was a really effective system that was beautifully played

01:23 by some of the best players in the world. And it had not just great individual quality

01:27 in it, but a beautiful balance. You had Mary Erbsingh-Gould, who if she wasn't there and

01:31 is probably now considered the best goalkeeper in the world. At centre-back you had this

01:34 great combination of Leah Williamson and Millie Bright. Have you heard the cat-dog thing about

01:39 centre-backs? I might do a video on that at some point. They were a cat-dog pairing in

01:42 that Bright is like so good at defensive fundamentals. She's dominant in the air, she's great in

01:46 the tackle, she reads danger really, really well. And Williamson, brilliant on the ball.

01:51 Great defensively, also brilliant on the ball. She gets involved in the build-up, she carries

01:55 it into midfield, she runs, she drives. It's a perfect pairing.

01:57 Anyway, ahead of those two in the double pivot, you've got Kiera Walsh and Georgia Stanway,

02:01 who again, perfectly balanced in that Walsh likes to get into deeper areas, likes to get

02:05 involved in the build-up. Is one of the best passers in the women's game. Look at this.

02:10 My God, that is brilliant. And Stanway can also play as a number 10, so she likes to

02:14 drive forward into the attacking line, giving you that nice little movement combination

02:18 thing. Combinations. And then up top, you had Lauren Hemp, who's really good at driving

02:22 with the ball, carrying it, going past players. We'll talk about that in a second. Fran Kirby,

02:26 who's equally as comfortable playing with the centre forward or dropping the form of

02:29 midfield three with her pals here. Ellen White up front, who wasn't like a great goal scorer.

02:34 She got a bit of criticism for that, but the job she plays in the system was really important.

02:39 And then you've got Beth Mead, who is considered by a lot of people to be the best women's

02:43 player in the world. One player of the tournament, and I think came second for the Ballon d'Or.

02:47 So a lot of fun there. And what Wiegmann had them doing for like the first 60 minutes of

02:51 most games, which we'll get to, is carrying the ball forward as much as possible. Trying

02:55 not to play long, trying not to hit long passes, but getting on the ball, whatever that is,

03:00 and carrying it, pressing the opposition as far back into their half, into their third

03:04 as you can. Hence the selection of most of these players, because in Williamson, you

03:08 had a centre back who could carry the ball into the midfield. In Lucy Bronze, you had

03:11 someone who was once considered, I think, like the best women's player in the world.

03:15 She's great at moving up the pitch. You've got Rachel Daly at left back, who primarily

03:18 is centre forward, which again, we'll talk about. She was really comfortable carrying

03:22 it. Stanway and Walsh, both equally comfortable doing that. Kirby would move it forward. Hemp

03:26 would go past players and beat them. And in Beth Mead, once you've got Bronze coming up

03:30 that side of the pitch, she would then float into the central areas where it's nice and

03:34 congested to allow her to do this. And then when they did have these teams penned into

03:38 their own half, into their own third, into their own box, they would end up with this

03:41 sort of attacking six players. And pretty much every single team at the European Championship

03:46 found that incredibly difficult to live with. But this is only really the first 60 minutes

03:50 of England games. Because what Serena Vigeman does is she has a starting XI and she has

03:54 a finishing XI. And they're different in terms of personnel and they're very different in

03:58 terms of their approach. Because while the object here is to pen teams back into their

04:01 half to force them to chase the game, to really drain them mentally, to drain them physically,

04:05 to use the skill you've got in tight areas to break them down, what they did after the

04:09 hour mark was try and exploit space. And if I just wave my magic wand and reset this...

04:16 Vigeman kept making the exact same three substitutions. She would take White off to be replaced by

04:21 Alessia Russo, Fran Kirby would come off to be replaced by Ella Toon, and then either

04:25 Mead or Hemp, usually Mead Weedley. Weedley? Mead Weedley. Weed Meadley. Weed Meadley.

04:31 She'd be replaced by Chloe Kelly. And when they made this change, they would actually

04:34 start weirdly being less aggressive. They wouldn't look to drive the ball up the pitch

04:37 with the ball as much. They would actually sit a little further off. Now, Russo's a fantastic

04:42 centre forward and scored loads of important goals, but she's also really good at moving

04:45 into space and pulling defenders around, which is something that White doesn't really do.

04:49 And with the opposition feeling a little bit more confident, they're getting on the ball

04:51 more, they're trying to push out. She would then just drop into pockets of space, hoping

04:55 to take a defender with her. And now, instead of Mead who wants to play centrally, you've

04:59 got these three players, all really direct, all really good at running, who will move

05:03 into whatever area of space is left. Like Ella Toon's the best way to explain this.

05:08 Like her and Fran Kirby are both really good at the number 10, but where Kirby prefers

05:11 to drop slightly deeper and play with the midfield, Toon actually wants to play up front.

05:16 She will go from that position into the forward line. And that's how England got that goal

05:20 against Germany. The game is a lot more open at this point and a lot more stretched. And

05:23 you can see Russo here has pulled out all the way from the number nine position into

05:26 sort of like a quite deep right hand side. That leaves a very nice space, which Ella

05:30 Toon breaks from the number 10 position into. Fran Kirby gets on the ball, being one of

05:34 the best passes in the women's game, as we've said, and she kills them with that pass. And

05:38 again, because Toon is a far more natural finisher than someone like Fran Kirby is,

05:42 she finishes that as if she's a centre forward. And that's pretty much just how you explain

05:46 Wiegman's system. You spend the first two thirds of the game just compressing the opposition

05:49 as tightly as you possibly can. And in the final third of the game, you open that up

05:53 and because you've worn them down physically and mentally for such a long period of time,

05:57 you capitalise on the mistakes they're more liable to make. But this, you see, is where

06:02 the problems start, because while Kelly, Toon and Russo all scored really important goals

06:06 for England in those final sections of matches, that system only works if you're starting

06:10 eleven can do all the preliminary work, if it can do their job. And of England's starting

06:15 eleven, they are going into this tournament without the services of Rachel Daly at left

06:19 back, without Leah Williamson and captain, without Fran Kirby, without Ellen White and

06:24 without Beth Mead. And to make matters worse, while they do have Millie Bright and she will

06:28 feature in this tournament, she hasn't kicked a ball in months. She's been injured for the

06:32 final part of the season. And this is what Serena Wiegman's big decision for this tournament

06:37 is because while she's without a number of her stars, she has incredible depth off her

06:41 bench that could pretty much plug every single one of these gaps. You haven't got Kirby because

06:45 she's injured, but that's fine because you've got Ella Toon and you haven't got White because

06:48 she's retired, but that's fine because you've got Alessia Russo and you haven't got Mead

06:51 because she's injured, but that's fine because you've got Chloe Kelly. The three super subs

06:55 you relied on can just come straight into the teeth, which sounds really obvious on

07:00 the face of it. But in order to do that, you have to completely sacrifice your approach

07:04 of having a starting eleven and a finishing eleven, of having these two different systems.

07:07 You have to get rid of the thing that won you the Euros. So that's the choice. Would

07:12 you take a hit on the system to accommodate the players or would you take a hit on the

07:15 players to accommodate the system? And the thing is, it's a decision that only gets tougher

07:19 once you start delving into your other options. Because it seems obvious that Russo should

07:23 be the one to replace White, but you've also got Rachel Daly, who is not like Ellen White,

07:27 but is more like Ellen White than Alessia Russo is. And also was the WSL's top scorer

07:32 this season. And then if you don't have Russo, then that kind of negates one of the main

07:35 benefits of having Ella Toon, which is the club chemistry the pair of them have from

07:39 playing together at Man United. So maybe you want to play Lauren James there, who again

07:43 is not like Frank Kirby, but is more like Frank Kirby than Toon is. She gets on the

07:47 ball, she carries it. And I mean, you can see it, can't you? Why the temptation is then

07:50 not to replace your missing players with the best players, but to replace the missing players

07:54 with the best players for the system. Because then you've still got Kelly and Russo and

07:58 Toon to come off the bench in the last 30 minutes and do to teams at the World Cup what

08:02 they did to teams at the Euros. It's a tough one. But hang on a second, Adam. I thought

08:06 the whole point of this video was that England could still win the World Cup. All you're

08:10 doing is going on about all the problems they've got and why things are terrible. And yes,

08:15 that is correct. Well observed. But the point I'm trying to make is that while England have

08:20 a lot of problems going into this tournament, what they really have is loads and loads of

08:26 excellent solutions. Because whatever solution Vigeman decides for the front line, she's

08:30 either going to keep the system that's really good or have loads of players that's really

08:34 good players who are still levels and levels above the vast majority of other teams in

08:39 this tournament. They haven't got Lea Williamson, no, but they have got Alex Greenwood, who's

08:42 a tremendously experienced part of this England side. She can play at left back, she can play

08:46 at left side at centre back. She'll fill in there relatively easily. The only real choice

08:50 is whether you want Carter or Neve Charles to play at left back and both of them are

08:54 dead good. And yes, OK, they are without one of, if not the best players in the world in

08:58 the shape of Bethmead. But Lauren James has just had one of the most impressive breakout

09:02 seasons imaginable at Chelsea. And there's no reason she can't have a breakout tournament

09:06 here in her place. Point I'm trying to make here is it's very easy to label England as

09:10 being in the midst of several player crises, but they are one of the few teams in the world,

09:16 probably the only team in the world equipped to cope with multiple concurrent crisis. And

09:22 if that can't get you excited about an international football tournament, I don't know what will.

09:26 I'll put it this way. The two players who scored the goals for England in the European

09:30 Championship finals 12 months ago are still in this squad and aren't even guaranteed to

09:36 start. That is the kind of depth we're talking about. But there is one other problem here,

09:41 which I don't think anyone else is really talking about. And that is there are a number

09:44 of mistakes starting to crop up in this team. The more is getting changed. But that's probably

09:50 to be expected. You've got to settle team, you've got to settle system. You're having

09:54 to make changes all the time without them being planned. Mistakes are going to creep

09:59 in. So whatever it is, Vigeman decides to do will make them more than capable of winning

10:03 the World Cup. They just need minutes with it. They just need game time with it. And

10:07 the group they've got starting against Haiti and then having Denmark and China is a really

10:12 good difficulty curve to allow you to get some of the bumps out and just to get everything

10:16 nice and gel. So can England win the Women's World Cup? Yes, absolutely. They can. There

10:21 is not a single team in that tournament that will not be terrified of playing them. But

10:26 will they win the World Cup? Maybe. I don't I don't know. I hope so. I just think if you

10:32 could have your first choice pairing in any area of the pitch going into a tournament,

10:37 you would want it in central midfield. And Walsh and Stamway are probably the best central

10:42 midfield in that tournament. So you've got that. You've got a chance. But yes, anyway,

10:47 if you'd like to know more about England's lionesses, you can catch them in the brand

10:50 new 442, which is only going to be brand new for about two more days because the new one

10:54 drops the same time the tournament does. So rush out, leave now, exit the flat, go and

10:59 buy it before it's too late. But yes, of course, in the meantime, get me on Twitter @AdamCleary442

11:05 everywhere you care to find it @442 as well. And I can't wait for this because all the

11:10 games are on while I'm at work and I work in football. So it's not even Skyving. Until

11:15 then, though, I do hope you enjoy the video. Please do subscribe if you did. Makes me dead

11:18 happy and I'll see you next time. Bye bye now. Goodbye.

11:24 Transcribed by https://otter.ai

11:26 Edited by https://otter.ai

11:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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