There were plenty of positives for Gareth Southgate from Monday’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, but you wonder if he is any closer to solving his biggest dilemma — the identity of England’s third midfielder.
Conor Gallagher and Trent Alexander-Arnold — the two most experienced contenders to partner Declan Rice at the European Championship — completed 90 minutes at St James’ Park, though the latter played the final half-hour at right-back, scoring England’s second goal.
Southgate felt Gallagher played with “real maturity” and was “very pleased” with Alexander-Arnold, but enough doubts linger about each to suggest the manager could yet go with a different option in England’s opening game, against Serbia on June 16.
Gallagher was combative and industrious, but he is occasionally wasteful in possession, while Alexander-Arnold is still learning to play centrally and his raking switches of play were often wasted with the right-footed Kieran Trippier at left-back.
“That is the unknown,” said Southgate, when asked if the Liverpool full-back could start a tournament game in midfield.
Perhaps one of Monday’s biggest winners, therefore, was Adam Wharton. The 20-year-old Crystal Palace midfielder came off the bench for the final 30 minutes and did not look out of place in a composed debut at the base of midfield.
“[I’m] really pleased with what he has done,” said Southgate. “He is a very calm boy, he seems to have taken everything in his stride. When you talk to him, he is just pretty unflappable, as he was on the pitch.
“That ability to receive and see a picture early isn’t something you should underestimate.”
Before the game, Southgate candidly admitted that England have been waiting for a player such as Wharton for “seven or eight years”; specifically, a midfielder who can keep possession, set the rhythm and play confidently through the lines.
Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo, 19, falls into a similar category, and Southgate acknowledged that English midfielders who look after possession are still the rarest of commodities, which has forced him to adapt.
“They are [rare],” he said. “There’s how we would have liked to play for seven or eight years and how we’ve tried to get the best out of the players that we’ve got.
“You immediately start to think of [Toni] Kroos, [Luka] Modric and those types. They’ve had a decade or more of how to control the rhythm of a game. That’s a step beyond where we’re at with Wharton and Mainoo. They’re really tender in their development.
“They’re doing really well and we’re excited about working with them, but we’ve got to be realistic about what that’s going to look like in terms of controlling the tempo at the highest possible level, which is a step that none of them have seen yet.”
The question for Southgate, then, is whether he is prepared to risk throwing Wharton or Mainoo into a tournament game, while Liverpool’s uncapped Curtis Jones, 23, is another inexperienced option in the provisional squad.
One of the three is likely to be cut by Saturday, with Southgate acknowledging “a lot comes down to where we think we’ll need positional cover”.
Another crowd-pleasing possibility for Southgate is to play Jude Bellingham in a deeper role next to Rice, start Phil Foden at No10 and crowbar another attacker — say, Cole Palmer or Anthony Gordon — into the front four.
At Birmingham, Bellingham wore the No22 shirt because a canny coach realised he was a four, an eight and a 10 rolled into one magnificent midfielder, but he has exclusively played as a high No10 in a remarkable debut season at Real Madrid, usually with three holding players behind him.
“What he hasn’t done is played as a six or as a lower eight [this season],” Southgate said. “It’s a while since he’s done that and we’ve got to bear that in mind when trying to do something in the space of four or five days.”
Getting the midfield right is arguably Southgate’s biggest decision
England’s ability to control the middle of the park has been the biggest factor in their near-misses under Southgate.
At the 2018 World Cup, they struggled to win the ball back from Croatia’s pass-masters and it was a similar story against Italy in the final of Euro 2020. Even at the World Cup in Qatar, England lacked a player capable of running the game in their quarter-final defeat to France.
Getting the midfield right is arguably Southgate’s biggest decision, and he has another chance to assess his options against Iceland on Friday.
“None of these players can do everything, so you are trying to work out the right balance,” he said. “Declan is going to be in there, so what is the [best] balance with him?”
