With Euro 2020 just 8 months away, England are finding themselves having defensive woes that they must fix sooner rather than later.
While their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign is not derailed or in danger by any means, England have still had some trouble in recent matches against sides that you would expect them to breeze by. First, they conceded 3 goals to Kosovo in an exciting match which they ended up winning by 2 goals, and on Friday, the Three Lions fell 2-1 to Czech Republic, who had no noticeable danger present in their team.
In both of these matches, England’s backline failed to deal with the relatively modest opposition, which has now raised question marks over what their backline should look like once Euro 2020 rolls around next summer.
One thing is for certain – Michael Keane should not be part of the set-up, unless his form improves drastically. Not only does his club side Everton currently sit in the relegation zone of the Premier League, but Keane has been a disaster in each of the 2 aforementioned Euro qualifying matches for England. While Harry Maguire is good enough to retain his place, Keane should be dropped from the national team without a doubt once John Stones returns from injury. In reality, Stones and Maguire are the only 2 centre-backs who probably have their Euro 2020 spots locked down already.
Michael Keane is having a stinker
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) October 11, 2019
The other 2 or 3 spots, depending on how many centre-backs Southgate wants to take to the tournament, will cause a dogfight between many players who are at similar levels. Taking Joe Gomez and Fikayo Tomori might be the prudent option, but with Gomez struggling to get into Klopp’s Liverpool team, he might be out of the picture come next summer. Other, more experienced options include the forever-underrated Lewis Dunk, Burnley’s James Tarkowski, Tyrone Mings, and of course Michael Keane – all 4 players have been called up to the England squad recently.
Another dark-horse option is Arsenal’s Rob Holding, who has just returned from a lengthy injury and looks set for an extended run in Unai Emery’s team. While Holding has never been called up to England, he has the quality to break into the picture by next summer.
As for the full-backs, Southgate is going to have a very tough time picking 2 right-backs out of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kieran Trippier, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka to take to the tournament, but the latters defensive quality might be an added positive for a side with defensive woes. Left-back is a weaker position for England, but Rose and Chilwell are adequate starters.
England are going to find it tough to win the Euros next summer if they don’t sort out their defence. As we’ve seen in recent qualifiers, Kane, Sancho, and Sterling can score all the goals they want, but if Southgate doesn’t gel the backline properly in time for next summer, their goals might not make the difference that it should.