Gareth Southgate said it himself when asked after the semi-final how England can hurt Spain.
“We’ll have to get the ball off them first!” the England manager said, with a wry smile. Southgate sounded upbeat but, really, his comment gets to the heart of what is likely to be England’s biggest challenge in Sunday’s final.
England’s age-old possession problem long predates Southgate, but it has been a factor in every one of their previous tournament near-misses under the manager.
In 2018, England ran out of steam against Croatia’s pass-masters in the World Cup semi-final, and Italy kept the ball better than Southgate’s side in the last Euros final. Even in the last World Cup, when England went toe-to-toe with France in the quarter-final, they lacked a player such as Antoine Griezmann, capable of running the game.
And Spain are, of course, the masters of keeping possession and controlling a game; injured midfielders Gavi and Pedri have barely been missed, because Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo are all having an outstanding tournament.
Given how jaded some of Southgate’s starters have looked in Germany — notably Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane — England can ill-afford to spend the game chasing Spanish shadows. They will have to get hold of the ball and then keep it in the face of the Spain press.
Southgate has learned from 2018, 2021 and Qatar, but he is conscious English football is still struggling to produce midfielders who love to look after the ball. The manager has said he hopes Kobbie Mainoo can develop into a Luka Modric or Toni Kroos-type, but the teenager appears a different sort of player.
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What has stood out in Mainoo’s breakthrough tournament is his willingness to break lines by carrying the ball, and snap into challenges. He is not exactly a classic tempo-setting midfield player who will help England to settle into a rhythm.
There will, therefore, be huge onus on Arsenal’s Declan Rice, who was dispossessed by Xavi Simons for the Netherlands’ goal on Wednesday, to ensure England have a foothold against Spain’s ball-players.
Rice’s battle with Manchester City’s Rodri should be particularly intriguing, because the pair were the two best off-the-ball midfielders in the Premier League last season.
“The improvement from the last Euros on the back-five is that we’re keeping the ball better,” Rice said on Friday. “In the last two games we’ve passed the ball really well.
“I felt really good with Kobbie, and [John] Stones and the back three has really helped. Jude and Phil [Foden] in the 10s has really helped as well.”
Rice and Mainoo will find it harder to pick holes in a Rodri-centric Spanish side than they did against the Dutch, but more important is finding a way to disrupt their opponents’ patterns of play.
An obvious concern for Southgate is that England have had to come from 1-0 down in all three of their knockout games en route to Berlin.
Their comebacks have demonstrated real resilience, and strengthened belief in the squad, but it will be an entirely different ask to recover against Spain. Luis de la Fuente’s side are simply too accomplished at managing a lead.
England can ill-afford to spend the game chasing Spanish shadows... they will have to get hold of the ball and keep it
On the plus side, this should be a game in which England can — finally — look to counter-attack, because for the first time at the tournament they are facing an opponent who will want to control possession.
Southgate will be instructing his side to hit Spain with fast transitions and he will be reminding them that possession is not everything.
England’s run through the knockouts has earned comparisons with Champions League-specialists Real Madrid, who are often happy to let their opponents have the ball.
Madrid have built a brand on always finding a way to win, even while having less of the game. That is England’s challenge on Sunday.
