In Sunday’s match against Finland, Lee Carsley will revert to a “conventional” formation following the England interim manager’s tactical change that failed in their unexpected defeat to Greece.
Carsley made a blunder on Thursday at Wembley by starting five attacking midfielders instead of a recognised striker, as Greece defeated England for the first time ever. It dealt a humiliating blow to the ambitions of the Euro 2024 finalists of being promoted back to the Nations League’s top division. Carsley’s aspirations to succeed Gareth Southgate permanently were further damaged when his poor choice of players caused jeers to break out during the 2-1 defeat.
When Harry Kane was out due to injury, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden filled in as false nines. However, when Carsley returns to the fundamentals, the Bayern Munich striker is available to play against Finland. “I think the criticism we face is always difficult. After playing professional football for so long, it’s nothing I’m not used to,” Carsley told reporters on Saturday. “I believe that the response is appropriate. You must be considerate to others’ viewpoints. We didn’t give our best performance that evening, and I anticipate a response next night.
I think it’s something that I’ll look back on in maybe two or three months and, you know, be better for it. “I wanted to give this job my best shot for the three camps that we spoke about. I didn’t want to have any regrets.” He added: “It was important that we do try something different at times and I think I’ll be a better coach for that, but I think we’ll probably be a little bit more conventional tomorrow night.”
Extremely difficult’ – To make matters worse for Carsley, Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones has returned home owing to a personal matter, while injured Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka has left the camp. Saka hobbled out of the match against Greece and went back to Arsenal for evaluation in front of their Premier League match the following weekend against Bournemouth.
When England travels to Finland for the first time since interim manager Howard Wilkinson managed a scoreless draw in Helsinki 24 years ago, a sell-out crowd awaits Carsley at the Olympiastadion. In September, Carsley’s second game in charge, England defeated Finland at Wembley, where they had not lost in their previous twelve matches.
We have the utmost regard for the squad,” he declared. “We found it very difficult at Wembley to break the team down, especially in the first 45 minutes.”They’ll be pretty sure of their ability to contain us, and we feel like we’re well-prepared for them.” Finland is the bottom-seeded team in England’s Nations League group, and they haven’t earned a point after losing 2-1 at home to the Republic of Ireland on Thursday. With Greece leading the group by three points, England cannot afford to lose any more ground before their match in Athens next month.
The goal established at the outset of the campaign was promotion. That’s the one we’re moving towards. Extremely significant,” remarked Carsley, who replaced Southgate as England Under-21 coach following the team’s loss to Spain in the Euro 2024 final. “The qualification for the World Cup is something that is also a priority, so it’s important that we get back on track”.
