England have never been better prepared to deliver ahead of World Cup quarter-final against Sweden

Catch us if you can: Jesse Lingard is all smiles as he leads Marcus Rashford in a sprint session
PA
James Olley6 July 2018

There was a school of thought before he took the job that Gareth Southgate was too nice to manage England.

Rather than meekly surrender and conform to habitual tournament failings, though, the 47-year-old has shrewdly turned this young group of players into a streetwise team standing just 90 minutes from England’s first World Cup semi-final for 28 years.

They have not been the best team at these finals. They were not even the best team in their group. But they might just be the best prepared.

England have only known Sweden would be their quarter-final opponents for three days, but even before then, back at the national football centre, St George’s Park, several of the 19 full-time coaches employed there were producing a detailed dossier on them for Southgate’s possible perusal. An environment to maximise England’s prospects has been created.

Executing a plan has often been the difficult bit for England, yet here the pressure and paralysis caused by the weight of expectation has, so far, been replaced by an impressive level of game-management.

John Stones, one of those to thrive under Southgate’s tutelage, said: “We’re a clever team, I would say, in respect of knowing when to do certain things in games. [For example], when we’ve just conceded, I’ve played a ball wide to the corner to try to put the pressure right back on our opponents. Things like that show we are clever and we’ve come on leaps and bounds in these two years working with Gareth.”

Colombia’s post-match irritations at England’s gamesmanship in Moscow on Tuesday was, in part, an attempt to distract from their own skulduggery, but also recognition of Southgate’s influence.

“Maybe we are getting a bit smarter,” said the manager in response to accusations of foul play. England are the second most fouled team at these finals, with 60 decisions going in their favour. They have conceded just 46 free-kicks and of the teams left in the tournament, only Brazil have conceded fewer (36). England are hardly exponents of the dark arts, but gone is the naivety of the past.

“The boys know when they are in a situation where they can’t get out and look to buy a foul,” added centre-half Stones. “That’s clever play. I’ve been on the end of clever players getting their body between me and the ball and getting fouls from me. Sometimes you can’t complain.

“I say clever, I think it is about having a great footballing brain, knowing when to do that without diving and being called a cheat. I don’t think there is anyone in our team who does that or wants to do that. Being clever and buying a smart foul is something that we have got as a team and it can help us through the tournament.”

Both mind and body will be tested on Saturday. Temperatures in Samara will be around 30C at kick-off and Sweden are an obdurate opponent. Their strikers, Marcus Berg and Ola Toivonen, have nothing like the goal threat or star quality of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but they set the tone for a hard-running, counter-attacking style which Southgate described as “bloody difficult to play against”.

In Pictures | England vs Colombia, World Cup | 03/07/2018

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Only Brazil and Uruguay have conceded fewer goals than Sweden’s two, both of which came against Germany. Goals from open play remain an issue for England but their grasp of VAR has been unsurpassed — yet another aspect Southgate has analysed and sought to use to his teams’ advantage.

“You know you are going to get pulled up if you are fouled off the ball or anything in that respect,” Stones said. “Nothing should be missed now, although some things do go under the radar, one blatant one the other day. In respect of do we play differently, no, we have got to still have our own beliefs and bring into the games what we do on the training pitch. We’ve always had little reminders in the back of your head that if you do get fouled and it doesn’t get seen, you can always get it brought back for VAR. It works both ways.

“In the opposition box, we’ve got a few penalties now that the referee has seen, but I remember in the second game [against Panama], Harry [Kane] won a penalty but at the same time I’ve been hauled to the floor and if he didn’t spot that it would have gone to VAR and been given as a penalty.”

Shootout success: Pickford celebrates after winning on penalties 
EPA

England banished their penalty shoot-out demons against Colombia — again, in part, due to the work done beforehand in practice and planning, even extending to notes on Jordan Pickford’s water bottle informing him which way kickers were likely to go — so the path of last recourse should not hold the fear it once did. Indeed, fear has given way to opportunity. Sweden have endured their own last-gasp drama — succumbing to Germany and Toni Kroos’s stunning free-kick in their second group game — to make history themselves, reaching the last eight for the first time since 1994.

A semi-final spot would exceed expectations for both sides. Fitness permitting, England have rarely looked in a better place to give it their all on Saturday.

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