This was a useful England friendly. Depleted by mid-season twangs, degraded by a frustrating red card for Serge Aurier – who’s still got it – and limited as a contest by the poverty of this Ivory Coast team; but there was good stuff here too, and a sense of two vital cogs in the Southgate universe clunking into place.
One thing does seem certain after another controlled Wembley win. This is how it’s going to go down. The shape, the pegs, the architecture of this team is set. We’re going to play this out to the end.
It was a good game for Jude Bellingham, who was imperiously good at times, and might just have a chance of opening up that central midfield. And beyond that for two of the comfy chairs, the inherited mahogany sideboards, the tried and trusted internal fittings of this England team.
Harry Maguire was booed by England’s fans at the start. But he was steady, unobtrusive and very much the England version of himself. Raheem Sterling got the same treatment, more viciously, in the pre-Southgate years. Here he produced an eye-catching performance, restating, in timely fashion, his own credentials as the most decisive English attacking midfielder since, well, who? David Beckham? Gazza? David Platt? Beckham ended up with 42 assists for England, which is spectacular. But tot up the stats and Sterling has pretty much everyone else covered.
He showed us why here. Half an hour into a fun, skittish, open game England’s No 7 took the ball on the left inside the Ivory Coast penalty area. Faced by two crouched and coiled defenders, Sterling produced a lovely little miniature. It will be one of the ticks, the asterisks, the bold-underlines Gareth Southgate takes from this March double header. Here was a very basic reminder of the way England have won in the age of Gareth.
Sterling used to take a lot of criticism. It is more nuanced now: his numbers are too good, his longevity unignorable. Instead the reservations are more to do with points of style, levels, ultimacy. Those who wish to criticise focus on the times when his basic technique can’t keep pace with genuinely A-list movement and a fine nose for space.
This is how Sterling plays. Here is a footballer who never stops, who keeps on coming, who gets knocked down, but always gets up again. And for England Sterling is a lock. The last six years have brought a gushing tap of attacking talent, a series of crowd favourites and coming men. But here was evidence, like it or not, that Kane-Sterling, Sterling-Kane, is up there with England’s greatest ever attacking partnerships. And they’re not done yet.
Southgate had picked a light, jazzy, pop-up team, set up in a 4-3-3. They probed in a meandering kind of way for the opening half hour. There were shrill cries every time Jack Grealish got the ball. It felt a little vague, fun, lightweight.
And then Sterling did that brilliant thing. The move was started by Maguire, who stepped out of defence smoothly and funnelled the ball to the left, where it ended up at Sterling’s feet. The Ivory Coast defence looked set, too close for a cross. Sterling had come to a halt.
At which point he did something very difficult, beating Aurier (yes, OK) from a standing start, with a jink and a shift of feet and a lucky break of the ball, dribbling skills applied exactly where they can make a difference.
Sterling had made space for a cross now, but that also had to beat a man, a nutmeg assist in the tightest of spaces that found Ollie Watkins in the right spot to score.
It was a wonderful assist, a genuine piece of goal-making drawing on the full palette of skills: the jink, the pass, the picture of those around him.
And yes, it was against Ivory Coast, but it keeps on being against someone, every time. When Sterling scored England’s second just before half time, prodding the ball home after Grealish had found him with a nice pass, it was his 17th goal to go with 13 assists in his last 29 England games.
This is how teams win games. If these March dates have done anything it is to confirm this is still how Southgate will set up his tournament team eight months from now: solidity; more solidity; Kane, Sterling.
The idea is still out there that some more compelling version is hiding behind the relentless consistency of the best England team in a couple of generations. The cries of frustration will still be heard, based in the notion that were England to play to their attacking strengths instead of trying to control the game, to smear their face with woad, batter their chest and say, behold the attacking power of this fully operational England, then the world would be brought to heel.
This is, of course, misjudged, based in vaguely grasped sporting exceptionalism, the idea that once the English unleash their inner Albion none can resist. France don’t play like that, and their attacking players are better. Balance is everything. Qatar is already flickering on the desert horizon. For better or worse, this thing, this England iteration, is going to play right out to the end.
