England stuck with the same XI in the same 4-3-3 shape which ripped through Iran four days earlier, but this was a completely different gameplan by Gareth Southgate, who came to the Al-Bayt Stadium clearly wary of USA’s press. England tried to nullify by doing nothing at all: their most common passing combination was John Stones to Harry Maguire, and their second-most common passing combination was Maguire to Stones. If Southgate took the handbrake off against Iran, he pulled it up again for the USA, then left the car in the garage, locked the door and dropped the keys in a canal.
It was not as if Stones and Maguire didn’t have options. Mason Mount and Jude Bellingham showed for passes to feet in their No8 roles but the centre-halves barely considered it. It was as if they’d had a personality transplant since the game with Iran, against whom Maguire’s cutting pass through the lines to Mount set up England’s first goal.
