Lee Carsley was one of the first men to leave the England dressing room almost an hour before kick-off. He had only the English goalkeepers for company and he stood with his arms folded in the middle of the pitch watching them at work.
Eventually the fielders and the rest of the staff came out to join him. Carsley stood with his arms behind his back and discussed the exercises with Ashley Cole. But he wanted to get involved and so, with just half an hour to go before his England tenure began, Carsley was there near a mountain of footballs, firing passes to Kobbie Mainoo and Declan Rice for them to put the ball into the could take half a turn. and drive forward.
Closer and closer to kick-off, Carsley was still busy with his players. He stood on the edge of the penalty area and struggled with an attacking player, who then passed him and tried to convert a cutback. It was only with twenty minutes to go before kick-off that Carsley ran back into the England dressing room.
Carsley said on Friday, explaining why he doesn’t sing the national anthem, that in the period just before kick-off he is wary of his “wandering thoughts” and that he thinks obsessively about how the match will go and how the match will go . opposition will mount. Maybe that explains why he accidentally walked into the house instead of out of the du-out when he came out of the tunnel.
Carsley was initially in the Irish seats (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
But what is certainly clear is that Carsley lives for things like this: the small details with players, the precise preparation work, the tactical scenarios he might face. The characterization of the old regime was that Gareth Southgate was the leader looking out for the crowd, while Steve Holland oversaw the details of the football. However, Carsley seems to enjoy the football details more than anyone else.
Even at halftime, before he went in to talk to his players, Carsley could be seen sitting in the dugout with his iPad. He explained afterwards that this is where he keeps all the notes he made during the long reflection period before the match. “If they change to a four, then we can build like this. If they change to a three, then we can build like that.” So he refreshed his memory on the key tactical points before going in and gave his players a few key tactical messages, just two or three points that they could take to heart.
This is just a small aspect of what was a fascinating first look at Carsley in his first game in England. This weekend has made it clear that as much as Carsley talks about how he wants to build on Southgate’s work – he was keen to say this was not a “fresh start” – the reality is that he is his own man and will do things. his own way.
There was a lot to like about the football England played in the first half, the little tweaks Carsley had made to his Southgate legacy. Anthony Gordon played as a high and wide winger and ran behind him, and his run led to England’s first goal. Declan Rice was released to go box-to-box thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold moving behind him into midfield. Rice scored the first goal and set up the second goal.
Goals from Rice and Grealish gave Carsley the win (Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Carsley denied that we were watching the launch of ‘Carsball’, insisting that this was not his style, but rather that of the players, and therefore they should get the credit. And yet the fact is that players today were doing things they didn’t always do under Southgate – and Carsley is the man responsible for that.
This international window was always going to be a learning experience as Carsley first stepped into the senior job. He looked like he relished the occasion and said it was the proudest day of his career. Just looking at him sitting in the technical room, you could see a man who lived every minute and tried to deal with every little detail in front of him on the pitch.
And if the England job was just about picking players, coaching, tactics and systems, then you could well say Carsley was perfect for the job. Here is someone who understands the system, knows the players and can now refine the team into winners.
But the other lesson from this weekend is that there is another side to coaching England. It’s about being the public face and voice of English football and having an informed opinion on almost everything. It means being comfortable speaking about endless non-football topics (you may remember the row over the modified St. George’s cross on England collars) and sometimes having to choose your words very carefully under great pressure.
This was the side of the job that Southgate was exceptional at, perfect on almost every subject, so much so that he soon became the spokesman for the soul of the national game. (No one expected Roy Hodgson or Fabio Capello to do this.) Carsley has only been in the job for one game, but is already at the center of a major controversy over whether he will sing the national anthem.
He gave an honest, sincere and completely justified answer to the question on Friday, but it was also the kind of situation that Southgate was so good at defusing. Instead it made the front page of two national newspapers and the back of many others, with The Telegraph saying he “can’t expect to govern England” if he doesn’t sing the national anthem and a columnist in fellow right-wing newspaper The Daily Mail calls for him to be sacked before kick-off. It feels like this is the side of the job, as a public spokesperson, where every word is scrutinized, where Carsley will have to learn quickly.
Carsley seems to accept that this comes with the territory. He will also know that there will be more problems like this in the future. “I think you probably have to accept that with that (job) comes some judgment,” he said when asked if it was all worth it. “I don’t feel like it bothers me. We are moving forward.”
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)