This is the moment for the Football Association to be proactive. John McDermott, the technical director, cannot stray into complacency and ignore the evidence from England’s shambolic defeat by Greece. This was more than a one-off night. Some performances are too disastrous to file away as one of those things and, after seeing Lee Carsley’s attempt to mark himself out as a tactical innovator backfire so spectacularly, the FA must be prepared to acknowledge some cold, hard truths in its quest to find England’s next permanent head coach.
Forget about a smooth transition of power. Those lofty aims of promoting from within, of drilling into the St George’s Park pipeline, are looking impossible to sustain. This was no isolated blip. This was an inexperienced manager tying himself in knots – first when Carsley named a starting XI so bold it almost resembled a parody of the internet team, then when he struggled through a bizarre press conference and said he would “hopefully” be going back to the under-21s when his interim stint ends next month – and it is up to McDermott to respond accordingly.
The harsh reality is that Carsley’s authority has been diminished by his “creative” decision to ruin his side’s balance by cramming in too many attackers. Is the job too big for him? Listening to him on Thursday night, it was not clear whether he really wants it. The comment about returning to the under-21 setup felt revealing. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. Maybe he was uncomfortable with people saying that the job was his to lose after England beat the Republic of Ireland and Finland last month. Or maybe this was Carsley inadvertently offering an insight into his frame of mind.
Whatever the truth, it added to the confusion on a night when Declan Rice patrolled midfield on his own, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer competed for space in central areas and Greece repeatedly cut through on the counterattack. It was not encouraging. Projecting confidence in public is part of managing England. Gareth Southgate rarely, if ever, lost control when the cameras were rolling. Carsley keeps walking into traps. Along with sidestepping multiple requests to clarify the line about the under-21s, his admission that England had trained with their formation against Greece for only 20 minutes was another error.
Yet this is a coach who has no track record in senior management. It explains the naivety against Greece. It would have been far less trouble to give Dominic Solanke or Ollie Watkins a chance to step in for Kane. Instead Carsley bowed to celebrity, playing Bellingham as the false 9, squeezing Foden into a vague playmaking role and wasting Palmer in central midfield. Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka were on the flanks because, well, why not?
It was the individual coming at the cost of the team and it is worth taking a moment to dwell on England’s disrespect of the concept of midfield. A reminder: any semblance of organisation is quickly going to disappear if no one can keep the ball. There is a value to deep-lying conductors such as Angel Gomes, a weird omission after his impressive full debut against Finland. They give teams structure and England had none against Greece.
It was too indulgent. There is a case for experimenting but the plan has to make sense. This was still a competitive fixture, even if the stakes were low, and it is hard to see how Carsley claws back credit. He has been given six games against moderate to low opposition in Nations League Group B2, which makes victories tricky to judge and setbacks difficult to accept. Maintaining perspective is important. As slick as England were in possession against Finland and Ireland, it should not be overlooked that they were open defensively and could have conceded in both games.
Something is off when the opposition have the ball. Perhaps it is a consequence of Carsley stepping up from development football. He has placed a heavy emphasis on possession and technique but what about defending properly? What about intensity and pressing? Full-backs inverting looks great but what happens if they are nowhere to be seen when your opponents break?
These are questions the FA’s recruitment team must consider. For Carsley, the dilemma is that the debacle against Greece will be hard to extinguish in his final three games. England are expected to win handsomely in Finland on Sunday and at home to Ireland next month. The real test comes when they play in Athens on 14 November.
By then, McDermott should have made progress in identifying alternative candidates. England’s first game after November will be in March, either a World Cup qualifier or Nations League playoff. Time is of the essence. Speak to Graham Potter, who is available, and see if he fits. Find out whether Eddie Howe really would be willing to leave Newcastle and work out whether the compensation costs are reasonable. Accept that Pep Guardiola is not going to be on the market until at least the end of the season and, in any case, is going to stretch the budget, to breaking point. Thomas Tuchel, another foreign manager, will also be extremely expensive.
None of this is straightforward. The system has not produced enough English managers. The system has produced Lee Carsley. Lee Carsley has just produced a team that could have lost 5-1 to Greece. As uncomfortable as it is, the FA already has a decision to make.
