England beat Finland 3-1 in the UEFA Nations League on Sunday to move provisionally level with Greece in League B Group 2 ahead of their home game with Ireland in Piraeus later in the day. The Three Lions have fallen behind the Greeks following their 2-1 defeat at Wembley earlier this week when Jude Bellingham’s late equalizer was bettered by an even later winner from Vangelis Pavlidis as part of an impressive double for Ivan Jovanovic’s men.
Interim England head coach Lee Carsley opted to make six changes to the team that lost to Greece, bringing in Dean Henderson, Kyle Walker, Marc Guehi, Angel Gomes, Jack Grealish and Harry Kane for Jordan Pickford, Rico Lewis, Levi Colwill, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Anthony Gordon. With John Stones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice, Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham key figures in both matches, Carsley’s potential long-term replacement as England boss will have a good look at many of his potential star talents in competitive action. .
Carsley has already been clear about the fact that he does not expect to remain in the role full-time and that his interim period should cover the remainder of 2024 as the English Football Association takes its time to make a decision on Gareth Southgate’s successor : “I was quite surprised after the last camp in terms of mine job and it’s my job to lose and everything else,” he said during this international break. “My assignment has been clear: I do three camps, there are three games left and then hopefully I go back to the 21s. It has had almost no impact.”
The result of Carsley’s changes for the match against Finland was a more clinical and controlled display and final score secured by goals from Grealish, Alexander-Arnold and Rice before Arttu Hoskonen grabbed a late consolation try. Combined with the 2-1 defeat to Greece, Carsley’s results so far have been mixed, but if you include the 2-0 wins over Ireland away and Finland at home, it means he has won three of his four games so far, with two more to come. the Greeks away and the Irish at home.
He may not expect the full-time gig, but he’s doing a huge service to anyone who could get it, with Kobbie Mainoo, Ezri Konsa and Harry Maguire also seeing time under Carsley, allowing a fuller picture of where the squad stands to be developed currently on. Considering that promotion to the Nations League can be achieved even if he finishes in the top two to return to League A status, Carsley should not be judged too harshly on this reversal and there is an argument that a Such a view of a varied player pool is unjustified. actually more valuable.
England really need to start winning silverware if they are to fulfill their enormous international potential and UNL is a good starting point for that, but the Three Lions first need to move back up to League A and that remains possible despite these October games. losing matches. While it is not necessarily expected that the next England head coach will be known before the November games that kick off 2024, it is a reasonable expectation that Carsley will know by then who should succeed him and restore the team to the top flight level. in the Nations League would be an ideal way to transfer.
Whoever it ends up being will be grateful for the work that has been done and will continue to be done until the end of the year by the interim boss as it potentially shapes the first few squads ahead of the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualification. . That process begins in March and ends the following March, with the draw taking place in December. You would imagine then that the new manager is in place as Carsley continues to build up to the main role with his work at under-21 level, as Southgate did. before moving on to the main performance.