Gareth Southgate can replicate Mikel Arteta's tactics as he aims to motivate his England side ahead of their clash with Wales on tonight. The Three Lions take on the Dragons in their final Group B fixture of the World Cup as they look to qualify for the round of 16 stage.
A win for England will see them qualify as group winners and avoid a clash with the Netherlands in the round of 16. Wales have nothing to lose this evening after their defeat against Iran, meaning they must beat England to qualify from the group.
Robert Page's squad watched the Three Lions' shock defeat to Iceland back in Euro 2016 at their hotel and celebrated wildly at full-time. Southgate could use the video of those celebrations to help fire up his players for this evening's match in what is expected to be a fiery affair in Qatar.
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Southgate has led England to a semi-final and final in their last two major tournaments and will be looking to go one better this year by lifting the World Cup for the first time since 1966. The Three Lions boss may look to use the same tactical technique as Arsenal boss Arteta ahead of kick-off as the two home nations face each other.
Arsenal endured a difficult start to the 2021/2022 season, with Brentford defeating the Gunners on the Premier League opening day. Bees striker Ivan Toney tweeted after the game: "Nice kickabout with the boys."
Toney's message did not go down well at the Emirates Stadium, with Arteta using the tweet as motivation for his players in the reverse fixture later that season, as shown in the Amazon Prime All or Nothing documentary. According to The Sun, via The Mirror, Southgate will look to use the video of Wales' celebrations following England's defeat to Iceland six years ago to motivate his squad for this evening's match.
Seven members of Southgate's squad played at Euro 2016, with some said to have spoken behind the scenes about the video of Wales celebrating their defeat. When asked if he will use Wales' celebrations six years ago as added motivation, the England boss replied: “I couldn’t say! We are aware of some of that.
"We know they have additional motivation to play against us, from what they are saying, so we have got to be prepared. Like any two countries who border each other, there is a competitive rivalry.
“For me, it’s a great sporting rivalry, no more than that — that feeling might not be mutual but I can understand that. I live in Yorkshire — they feel the same about the rest of England!”
Arteta was seen lecturing his players ahead of the match against Brentford in the All or Nothing documentary after using Toney's tweet as the catalyst to motivate his squad. "Before I go, because it's still in my stomach, and I have managed to keep it in my stomach for six months. This is Toney [show's tweet] after the game when we played them at Brentford," the Spaniard said.
"You know what he [Toney] did, you know his tweet? 'Nice kickabout with the boys this afternoon'. So, today they play in our house guys, and there is only one team in that f****** pithead.
"Only team, they don't play, we take the f****** ball, we take the game and we go for it. Let's win this f****** game let's go."
Arteta's motivational tactics worked well with Arsenal defeating Brentford 2-1 thanks to goals from Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka. Southgate will be hoping he can achieve a similar result tonight should he use the video of Wales celebrating the Three Lions defeat six years ago.
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