00:00Hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel where England have made it
00:04to the World Cup semi-final and I just want to let that sentence hang around for a bit because
00:11the first World Cup was in 1930 which means England got to two semi-finals in a century
00:18and now you have just seen them get to two in the space of eight years and I think if
00:23nothing else
00:24that is worth basking in. However the manner of their quarter-final win over Norway has left a
00:29lot of questions. They went behind, they really struggled for long periods, they did not inspire
00:33you with confidence having to play the world champions next. And the mad thing is that Tommy
00:39Tuchel agrees with you. He called them sloppy, not fast enough and not repetitive enough. So today
00:46we're going to look at the team that played Norway and work out what that means. Why did he use
00:50those
00:51words specifically and is that really what was wrong? So let's do that. Also yes I know this is a
00:58day late but I was at a wedding at the weekend. We all sat on the lawn and watched the
01:01football
01:02and it was magical. So that's why.
01:08All right so this was your lineup. We had Esri Kwanza in it right back for the suspended
01:13Jarrell Kwanza. John Stones replacing him in the middle and Noni Madweke coming in for
01:17Kaio Saka who is making excellent contributions for England at this World Cup. But I personally
01:23want to just tuck into bed and tell him to go to sleep until about September. And the main tactical
01:30issue that England had to be wary of was the use of Alexander Soloff in this position because he's
01:36a centre forward by trade but he's playing out on this side because when Norway get pressured
01:41in their own third he gives them a way to reliably skip the press entirely and just go long and
01:47direct
01:47into him. However Nico O'Reilly at like 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5 is bigger and stronger than every
01:55other
01:56fullback he has been up against. So that takes away a lot of the reliability of that tactic. Plus
02:02when England shuffle across into their back three like this and you push O'Reilly into the forward
02:08line sometimes inside Gordon sometimes outside Gordon you can see how it looks here. Soloff simply
02:14will not follow him all the way back there. So that's sort of how England were thinking about
02:20this. But the problem England had in this game was not really what Norway do with the ball it is
02:25in
02:25the way that they defend. They use a 4-5-1 off the ball rather than the 4-4-2
02:31everybody else uses and
02:32that does make it harder for them to press but it does also add a third body out on this
02:38side
02:39when England try to get their patented rotational wide triangles off. And if you missed our little
02:45video on the DR Congo game right the main approach of England's attacking play is to get these two
02:51rotational wide triangles together so that the movement of two of these players can open up space
02:57for a third to run past you. Now against Norway who have an extra player in the middle you can
03:03still
03:03do this and it should still work but it does mean that more often than not instead of finding
03:09yourself in a three versus two it's still going to be a three versus three. There's another central
03:14midfielder who can come over and join in. Like in this example here it should be Elliot Anderson but
03:19Mark Gaye stepped up to join in and because of the fifth midfielder who in this case is Odegaard
03:25they are matched up three versus three with him O'Reilly and Gordon. If this ball goes to O'Reilly's
03:31feet
03:31then Soloth can engage with it and if it goes into the space Gordon is leaving him to get him
03:36behind
03:37Ryerson will then get out to him. And what you should be noticing there with the fact that Ryerson
03:42isn't chasing Anthony Gordon around in a panic is that Norway do not easily get pulled out of their
03:49shape. That's because unlike other teams who have man-for-man ideas like fullback follows the
03:53winger, centre mid picks up the third man etc they are really well drilled in defending the zone
03:59rather than the man. And it sounds really simple but what they do is they just pass you off from
04:05one player to another as you move between zones because their job is to defend the zone. It stopped
04:11England creating the little gaps and the confusion that they look for when they attack. Like Gordon
04:16is coming short here to give that space in behind but Ryerson just holds his position and allows the
04:23midfield to pick him up instead and it made Norway so so solid in that game. And look it might
04:30be like
04:30a weird thing to zone in on especially given England scored two goals and won but given that they had
04:36long spells of possession and they ended up in this situation absolutely loads. Both of those goals
04:43don't come from these moments. They come from what we would call a transition. Like if you look at both
04:49the moments where they're attacking the box before the goals you can't see any evidence of that strong
04:53and compact 4-5-1 shape because they both come from situations where Norway understandably would
05:00just not have been in it. Like Anderson takes the ball off that goal kick and just look at the
05:05shape
05:06they're in here. Like he's already in behind Solov because he's the target of the goal kick
05:11and as soon as he strides forward you can see the rest of the midfield being forced to collapse around
05:17him. Like Bellingham's already here asking for the ball because he can see the space
05:21he has now got. Ryerson has to engage so he can't go with Gordon who gets in behind and as
05:27he makes the
05:27pass look at the defensive shape they are in. Like it's completely non-existent because they were set
05:34up for the goal kick not set up for England possession. And then the Morgan Rodgers shot for the second
05:40goal
05:40like this is immediately following a corner so there just isn't and we'll overlay what it should have
05:46looked like two lines in front of the goal here. Defenders and midfielders are still mostly occupying
05:52the box and that leaves all this space out on the edge of it to rattle off a shot. Like
05:58if that moment
05:58had come in open play after another long spell of England possession then it probably would have looked
06:03something more like this. He never ever gets that shot off with all those players standing in front of
06:09him. So you can then understand Tuchel's unhappiness. Like yes they went and got the goals
06:15when the game sort of broke down a bit but for the spells where they were on top where they
06:19were
06:19controlling the game which is what they wanted to do they weren't really able to create anything.
06:25Like England had one shot on target in 90 minutes and that was the Bellingham goal. Like when they
06:32had control they couldn't do anything. And the thing is I've been really positive on Tuchel's like
06:39involvement as a manager from the touchline in games. I think he's made a lot of really smart
06:44changes to what England are doing that's directly led to some of the results they've got. But
06:50I actually think he gets it quite badly wrong in this game. When it isn't working for England right
06:57his approach is not to change what this team are doing. Like he doesn't suddenly stick an extra
07:02center forward up front to occupy a defender. He keeps the system the same but he takes the
07:08personnel that are in it and he changes those around. Like he's convinced this idea will work.
07:14It's just that different players have different profiles. They approach situations differently.
07:19They present defenders with different challenges. And largely so far that's been quite successful.
07:25And you saw this in the DR Congo game. Like the equalizer comes because after starting with
07:30Spence, Madueke and Bellingham in that right-hand side it's now Rice, Eze and Saka. And they do
07:36very different things in that role. And so here what he does is he takes Declan Rice who looked
07:41absolutely shattered and Noni Madueke off. And he brings on Bakayo Saka and Eberichi Eze. But in the
07:49process moves Bellingham back into Rice's position. Effectively taking him out of this forward line when
07:56England had the ball. And his reason for doing that is all to do with that comment
08:00about England not being fast enough. Because he's not talking about like the tempo of the game or
08:05players running with the ball or something like that. He's talking about the fact that when England
08:10are presented with a block that is not moving, that is not opening up gaps, what they have to do
08:16is move the ball really quickly in front of it and in between it to try and draw out players
08:23from the
08:23shape and hopefully make a mistake and leave a gap. Now Rice is one of England's best players but with
08:29his fitness issues, just his profile anyway, it's not ideal for playing quick incisive passes
08:35under pressure. He's more likely to go backwards or keep the ball safe, basically protect the
08:40possession rather than risking it. So by dropping Bellingham deep, who is a little braver on the
08:45ball, a little bit more confident, more likely to pass a move, you're hoping that that then acts as a
08:51magnet that draws some of the Norway defence towards him. But it didn't work. England were really bad at the
08:58start of that second half and these are all of Jude Bellingham's passes in the first 45 minutes
09:03when he was in that forward line. You can see he's all over the place, he's causing a lot of
09:07problems
09:08and these are all his passes from the start of the second half until Tuchel brings on Rhys James
09:16in a desperate attempt to correct his own mistake. And so when he did do that, Rhys James ends up
09:21going
09:21into the centre of midfield here, comes on for Anthony Gordon, Eze goes out to the left and that leaves
09:26another slot in that forward line that he could put Bellingham back into. So by this point of the game,
09:33they look like this. But credit where it's due, for all I think those first couple of changes gave England
09:39a lot of problems, bringing on Spence and Rodgers at the end of the game took England to sort of
09:44this
09:45configuration. Like Elliot Anderson is now a proper six, he's splitting the two centre-backs, James and Spence
09:51are pushing up to B in the triangles, albeit in different positions, Eze is a little bit deeper.
09:56But crucially, Bellingham has proximity to Harry Kane. He's now basically a second centre-forward.
10:02Which is why when the Rodgers shot comes in, even though it's all stemming from a corner,
10:06hence Norway's disorganisation, he is in position to react to the rebound. And you could make special
10:13mention of a number of these players, though Elliot Anderson was unbelievable again. But Jed Spence,
10:17he was easily the best player in extra time, purely through the amount of energy and running that he brought.
10:25Like on a game where everybody is absolutely sapped from that heat, he looked like a world-beater
10:31purely through having fresh legs and a willingness to use them, which should show you just how hard it is
10:39to play in those conditions. And the reason I want to mention that is because I've seen a lot of
10:43people
10:43calling it quite a flat and uninspiring performance. And if that was your reads, you're not wrong,
10:49but just try and imagine how hard it is to run about in that heat. Like try and imagine how
10:55hard
10:56it is to do anything in this country when it's 30 degrees. I've done one load of washing, one since
11:04I
11:04got back from New York, because I simply cannot find the strength to carry around a big bundle of
11:11clothes all the way to the machine. Like if you try to convince me to then press a Norwegian centre
11:16back, you would need to have a gun. So look, I know you probably didn't enjoy all 120 minutes of
11:22that, but winning repeatedly is not an accident, especially when you're not playing all that well.
11:28Sometimes, especially in a game like this, a system finally just finds the magic combination and clicks
11:34for you. And other times, one of the best players in the world is finally given the situation
11:39required to have a decisive impact. And for England here today, that was Jude Bellingham and
11:46not for the first time in this tournament. And look, you know me by now, right? I think football
11:51is a lot harder than most people make allowances for when they're watching it. And playing well,
11:57playing convincingly in situations of both expectation and actual dominance is even harder still.
12:05But this England side keep getting asked a bigger and bigger question. And they keep giving you the
12:11answers. It might not be like great to watch. It might not be the dominance you're expecting. But
12:17I'll say it again. Second World Cup semi-final in eight years after doing two in 100 years. This is
12:25this is good. This is what we wanted. And look, if you're still not convinced that this is what a
12:30top
12:30team looks like in international football. Look who they're playing. Next, the reigning world champions
12:36with Lionel Messi, but you've been taken all the way by Cape Verde, Switzerland and Egypt. All teams
12:43you'd expect them to absolutely batter. Like it just doesn't happen in international football anymore.
12:49The margins are too small. This is what the top teams tend to do when they're winning. I promise you.
12:56And if nothing else, if nothing else, take this, right? England will up their levels again for
13:02this game. And I cannot say whether that will be enough to win. But I promise you, they are sweating
13:07this game every single bit as much in Buenos Aires as you are wherever you're watching this at home,
13:16I imagine. So yes, that is why England were actually confusingly sort of good in that game,
13:21even if they felt to you and the manager, like they were quite confusingly bad. Anyway,
13:27semi-final up next, which of course we'll be covering. So do subscribe to us here at the
13:30Adam Cleary Football Channel for all your World Cup updates, your World Cup dates. And you can get
13:35me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y. 104 games in this tournament.
13:41And we've watched 101 of them. Now, you honestly, you cannot even envisage the scope of the holiday
13:52I'm going to have in like two weeks time. It'll change lives that will, namely mine. Bye.
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