Did Southgate Finally Find The Balance with Mount and Bellingham ?

On 23 September 2022 England have officially relegated from top tier of UEFA Nations League after losing 1-0 against Italy on San Siro Stadium.

The English Team has just scored four goal in sex games played in the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League. Three of them was against Germany in the last match after relegation already. That, against ten goals conceded, which put Southgate in risk to lose his chair with the Three lions right before 2 months of the World Cup.

In UEFA Nations League matches Southgate changed the formation many times by playing with 3 in back and other times 4, searching for the right shape for his team. He tried to take advantage from this competition by using different style of formation and take a look at 28 Players in these sixth matches.

After all these experiments the English manager decided to start his first match at the World Cup against Iran with 4-3-3 formation with Mount and Bellingham at the Midfield in front of Declan Rice.

‘‘The first half was sticky with lots of stoppages but our pressing and movement was really good’’.

Those were Southgate’s words about his team’s performance after beating Iran 6-2 on their first match.

One of the reasons that make things difficult for the English team was the shape that Carlos Queiroz decided to start the match with. The Portuguese manger start the match with 5-4-1 formation. Playing with a Low block most of time was the suitable way in his opinion to face the dangers of the speedy wingers ( Sterling & Saka ) and the space that could be showed behind his Last defensive Line.

On the other hand, Southgate showed some interesting ideas on the final Phase. One of these ideas was the usage of Mason Mount Behind Iran’s second Line to create threats from it.

The first scene was at the Min 5, when Bellingham started to run in front of Iran’s Midfielder to receive the ball and help his team on the progression phase.

A quick pass and a run to the empty space from Bellingham was enough to get the attention of Iran’s Midfielder and dragged him out of his position.

Bellingham send a quick pass to Stones when he realized that there is a chance to get advantage from the space behind the player who was following him. Saka fill this space but couldn’t turn around with the ball so he pass it to Declan Rice.

Pass from Rice to Bellingham - who was free this time from marking - gave mount the chance to play his role by positioning himself in the half spaces to receive the ball, Which ended with a good cross from Shaw.

Another scene of Mount get advantage from the space behind the player who follow Bellingham in the build up.

One of Southgate idea’s has been showed at the min ( 22 ) when the team face difficulty on creating spaces at the middle.

Mount has to drop down to drag Iran’s winger with him. this movement Helped Shaw to get the ball with no pressure on him.

Sterling fake run helped him to make a link-up with Shaw at the wing.

Meanwhile, Bellingham was running near the box , watching and waiting for the right time to get the cross that could be come from Shaw. but the cross has been intercepted by Iran’s defenders at the end.

Ten minutes later, The English team showed a serious intentions to score the first goal. The good communication between the trio Shaw, Mount and Sterling have been showed in this time.

Mount pointing to pass the ball to Maguire trying to get advantage from the numerical increase in this side.

The run from Iran’s winger to press Maguire forced his teammate to Leave his place and press at Sterling, which created a way to pass from Maguire to Mount in the half space.

While Billingham was scanning for the space that he have to attack.

Quick pass from Mount to Sterling, and Sterling find the way to Shaw who make a brilliant cross from Shaw that ended with the ball in the net.

On the shown Passing Network, The Link between the trio Shaw, Mount and Sterling was obvious on their average of position in the field and how the spaces between them was the least possible.

With his 19 years and 145 days, Bellingham showed a promising performance with a great passes accuracy in the first 90 mins of his career in the World Cup.

So at the end, Is this the last chance for Southgate and his players going back to their country with the golden Cup and singing (It’s coming home) for the last time !!