Sky Sports Premier League Podcast
Welbeck ‘goal’ disallowed as England come up short against Spain
08 Sep 2018
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of England's performance against Spain?
What a great start tonight for England. Marcus Rashford back in the side and back on the score sheet for his country. Two minutes late to those. Spain were level through Seoul. And then before half-time, they were in front. Set-piece routine. Rodrigo benefiting from that. And then right at the depth, deep into injury time, Danny Welbeck thought he'd equalised for England. Didn't turn out to be.
Goal disallowed. What does England captain make of that? Harry Kane with Patrick Davison.
Harry Barnstorm in finish, is there a feeling that it should have earned you a draw with Danny Welbeck at the end there?
Yeah, 100%. In them big moments, you need a ref to stay strong and unfortunately he's bottled it. Danny Welbeck just stood there, the keepers went to catch it, fell on top of him and he's put it away and somehow the refs give it a foul. Like I say, in them big moments sometimes, you need a firm ref who who don't, under the pressure, give wrong decisions, really.
So, disappointing to finish that way. I thought we played well, especially second half. And, yeah, we deserved the draw, at least. You were right in there for the well-backed goal that wasn't. Did it look clear to you? Yeah, like I said, Danny just stood there and De Gea has gone up and he's caught the ball, but as he's come down, he's fell on top of Danny.
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Chapter 2: How did the controversial disallowed goal impact the match outcome?
He ain't gone to foul him or anything and the ball's dropped. So, keepers sometimes get... better treatment than the rest of us, and that's unfortunate for us. Overall, you wanted teams, opponents that would push you to the limit.
Did you get that tonight?
Yeah, it was a good game. It's a real test against a team who keep the ball really well.
Chapter 3: What does Harry Kane think about England's chances after the match?
But look, there were stages where they kept the ball and it was difficult for us, but we had a good spell throughout the game as well. So we probably created better chances throughout the game, and like I say, I think we deserved the draw at least.
physically pretty tough up top feeding off scraps at times when they've dominated the ball yeah it's tough like I said we tried to press we tried to play with high intensity without the ball and like I said they're a very good team sometimes if you're a little bit late they pop it around you and you're running so It's a tough game, but this is what this competition is about.
We're going to play the best teams around the world, and Spain are certainly one of them. There's a lot of stuff we can learn from, but I think we can hold our heads up high and put in a good performance.
Also, losing Luke Shaw in pretty scary circumstances we understand is OK, but do you think that affected you for a time?
It's never nice to see one of your teammates go down, especially like that, it looked horrible. I haven't seen Luki yet, so hopefully he's all good, but it's never nice for anyone to see that. I don't think it affected us, I thought we tried to play after that, we traded chances, maybe it could have been a bit more clinical.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is here tonight with Jermaine Defoe and Jamie Carragher. Alex, do you think that England actually would have deserved something more than that?
I think if you look at the chances, especially created in the second half and obviously the disallowed goal at the end, you've got to say that we deserved more there. I think Harry hit the nail on the head there. We made good chances, we just needed to be more clinical at times and I think we're definitely unlucky with the disallowed goal at the end.
Do you think they were encouraging signs, Jermaine? I think so. I thought the second half was a lot better.
The second half of the second half.
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Chapter 4: How did the injury to Luke Shaw affect the team's dynamics?
I mean, I know from experience with the coaching staff, he wants those boys from midfield to make the runs in behind. I think Jesse did that really well in the World Cup, making those runs where Trips finds him with that ball down the side and in behind. That's a big, big role.
And then obviously you've got to try and find the pockets to turn and get balls off Stonesy and Harry and Hendo or whoever's holding there to find you. And that's obviously always a challenge. You've got to constantly move. But then again tonight, I think they had the challenge of playing a really good side in Spain where the midfield moved the ball really well.
It can be hard to get a grip on the game. And, you know, I think they didn't have as much possession as I know those two would have liked. You know, Dele and Jesse are creative. They want the ball. They want to do what they need to do on it.
But I think with the ball that they did have, there was moments where you could see, you know, Jesse was still making those runs in behind and Trips was nearly finding him. And...
you know once you get around the box it's in the question we need to try and be as creative as possible and and be more clinical in those areas so i could see so you know i know what these boys are trying to do out there so i can see them doing the things that they're being asked to do and that's good and then you know with experience and with more game time and playing together these things should start coming off hopefully learning big lessons like tonight as well do you think the formation is a problem jamie
I don't think it's a problem. At times in a game it will become a problem. Now, I think the system England play, I think we've all said before, you want that extra man maybe in midfield. So three at the back normally gives you an extra man in midfield. So it's about keeping possession and also closing people down against teams who have possession.
But what's happened in the last sort of, forget the Belgium game, the third and fourth place, but the last two games, Croatia and Spain, when you're playing against teams who are technically better than you, When you get forced back into a five, I mean, Alex has just mentioned it then, if England are going to beat big teams, more often than not, the big teams will play 4-3-3.
Most teams in the world, I think, now, that's the system. So it sort of really counteracts a three at the back. So England have got to find a way. What happens with the full-back? And you've got to. Your own wing-back can't become a full-back. He's got to become a winger at times where... I'm talking about when you're out of possession.
So he goes and closes, and that was one of the reasons why I think Gareth Southgate chose Kyle Walker in the summer, because then he becomes the full-back. So you're going from a five and you're shifting to a four. So this idea of systems all the time, three at the back or four at the back, no matter what system you play, you're always in and out of different systems.
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Chapter 5: What were the main criticisms of England's midfield during the game?
You know, they are a top, top side and I think for Spells, you know, kept the ball incredibly well, pressed us and we didn't keep the ball in the early part of the game well enough. But I've got to give the players enormous credit. You know, it was a game that We could have folded and disappeared. We didn't. We hung in there.
And in the last 25, 30 minutes, we really came into the game, kept the ball a lot better, created some good chances and could well have got a draw out of it. So we're under no illusions that Spain were the better team for long periods of that. But they are brilliant at what they do. And we are early stages of what we're trying to do still.
So at the points where you didn't keep it well enough, as you say, is that down to their obviously huge quality or certain deficiencies in your own set up?
No, I think they pressed extremely well. It took us a while to work out where their press was coming from and the solutions to get through it. We managed it a couple of times, but at the moment we're still finding our feet in playing out in those areas. Now we have a choice. We can either go back to an old style and not bother but we'll never be a top team, or we keep trying to do what we do.
We'll suffer at times, but we have got some players that can do it and some that are improving at it. For me, it's the way I believe we should play.
In terms of keeping the ball then and taking on a team that good, can these players get to their level?
Look, you're talking about a system in Spain that has produced some of the best midfield players in the world forever. So at the moment, we are a different profile of players. We can't play the way they want to play, but with our back players and the way they take responsibility on the ball, we can move the ball.
When some of our guys are a bit fitter and match fitter, I think we'll function a bit better further up the pitch. We've got to keep working at what we're trying to do. It takes time and we've come a long way in a period of time. Today was as tough a test as you could face in terms of the pressing and playing a team that are so comfortable in possession.
Did they give you food for thought with your formation as well? Did they challenge that shape in a similar way to what Croatia did in the second half an extra time?
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Chapter 6: How did England's formation influence their gameplay against Spain?
We just have to get better at doing it.
How do you think your new boys did? Gomez, Sean, I'm including Rashford in that as well.
Yeah, yeah, excellent. I think young players, thankfully it looks like Luke is up and talking and needs to be assessed, but great ball for the goal. Marcus has had a really good impact on the game. He's scored, had a great save from the header, got through on the other chance, so
For a young striker, he's had a really good impact on the game and I thought Gomez's defending was excellent, really, very, very good. So there are lots of individual positives for us and for me as a collective, they've given absolutely everything and found a way to get back into the game and I've got to commend them for that because that was a really, really tough test.
You did say Spain were the better team, but ultimately, do you feel like you should have drawn it at the end there through Danny Welbeck?
Yeah, I think it's there. Two centre-backs came together to block Danny. I think it's clear Danny just stands there, De Gea comes over the top and drops the ball. So I think everybody can see it should have been a goal.
And lastly, I know it's kind of gone now, but did you enjoy the atmosphere, the mood around Wembley, particularly before the game?
Yeah, the support has been brilliant and the reaction we had to what we did in the summer was brilliant. I think everybody understood that this group of players achieved a result that was beyond where we were at as a team and the hard work that lies ahead to be competitive in two years' time showed tonight.
Thank you for your time.
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