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How will England’s attack fare against Europe’s elite?

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Going into the European Championships this summer, it was clear that there were going to have to be changes to England’s attacking line. With Rooney suspended for the first two games and the likes of Darren Bent, Bobby Zamora and Peter Crouch not in the squad, the national side will have to look down slightly unfamiliar avenues for goals. But with other nations looking particularly strong offensively, how much of a disadvantage does this give England?

With the news that Jermaine Defoe has had to take time away from the squad for personal reasons, Roy Hodgson is left without much room for maneuver when it comes to juggling forward options. It looks like the favoured set-up up top, as it is with most teams in the Euros, is with one striker and supporting midfielders or wingers. Welbeck should win the battle with Andy Carroll to start in the number 9 position, with Ashley Young supporting from just behind.

This should work reasonably well, even against France, because of the opportunity to get in behind opposition defence using pace. Laurent Blanc has had problems recently with players beating his left-back and creating goals from that area of the pitch. The centre-backs are also known to drift higher up the pitch sometimes and leave space for attackers to exploit, which could be something Young and Welbeck will look to pounce upon. England may be reliant on sporadic bouts of possession, as opposed to dominating the ball, and may therefore be looking to try killer passes into the front-men an catch the opposition off-guard.

The help from the wings may be limited in an attacking sense. The left-hand side looks like it might consist of Milner and some empty space, which isn’t necessarily opposed to what Hodgson is aiming for, with Milner tracking back. The right may offer more attacking promise with Walcott, but England will be tempted to funnel the play through Young in the middle, and Theo isn’t always the best at linking up with other attacking midfielders when going forward. Oxlade-Chamberlain does provide another option from the bench with pace and power, but often looks to come inside to create chances, closer to where Young will be looking to occupy space.

Andy Carroll may start, but it seems unlikely. Even so, he will surely have a role to play from the bench at the very least. He can do a great job in holding up the ball, being particularly useful if England are ahead in the game, but other players must offer adequate support to keep the ball. To get the most out of his game, Carroll really needs service from wide areas into the box, which may be few and far between, so his input in key goalscoring areas will possibly be limited at times. In a way, the early departure of Defoe could throw Hodgson into a decision he didn’t want to make because Jermaine was clearly in-line to be used as an impact sub. Now if he wants to use Carroll in that role instead, he is a completely different style of player, and must be accommodated accordingly when he comes on.

The key man in unravelling the attacking intentions of England in these Euros could be Steven Gerrard, relating to how far forward he is willing to roam without getting dragged away from his midfield duties without the ball. If his intentions are to join in with attacks and offer genuine link-up in the final third, then we could see some decent attacking movement, which leans away from the suggestion that England will be set-up just to soak up pressure and then spring rushed attacks when in possession. However, I fear that his role will slip into more of an anchorman as England look to sit quite deep for spells without the ball. This is somewhat unnecessary because Scott Parker does a lot of closing down and chasing in defensive midfield, giving Gerrard license to move further forward at times if he wishes. Either way, one of England’s main tasks against the stronger sides will be preventing their attacking players from becoming isolated on and off the ball.

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  • Andy says:

    Defoe is back now and will probably be available for the bench.unfortunately hogdson doesn’t like walcott so we might see downing and milner start as our wingers. God forbid

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