Gareth Southgate has chance to discover how far England has come from the 2018 WC semi-finals

Gareth Southgate has chance to discover how far England has come from the 2018 WC semi-finals
Gareth Southgate needs to get his team selection right and balance both offense and defense

Gareth Southgate has to ditch his defensive minded tactics and get the attack right. England has highly potent attackers and he has to find the perfect combination. Belgium is the best test Southgate can have for quite some time.

Overloading in the name of defense

The England manager needs to stop playing two defensive midfielders with four defenders. That would mean that only four players remain for attacking and that is never enough. Southgate needs to get his team right while still trying to remain balanced. He is slowly killing England’s offense by overloading the defence of the team.

He also needs to stop favouring some players and give the proven ones a chance. Mason Mount has to be rested and players like Jack Grealish has to be given a chance. Belgium is the best opponent England will face for quite a time and is a much needed test to identify how far England has come since their 2018 WC exploits in Russia. In our opinion, Southgate needs to skew the balance to the offensive side of England while also ensuring that the defence is protected.

FS Video

The suggested team would be Nick Pope (GK), Reece James, Michael Keane, Harry Maguire, Ben Chilwell, Declan Rice, Jordan Henderson, Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho, Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling

Also read: Full squads of all 11 ISL teams for ISL 2020/21