1. Play Loftus-Cheek
England have talented midfielders but they were seemingly unwilling to pass forward against Sweden, until Ruben Loftus-Cheek came on and offered something different.
It was strange because he’s been viewed mainly as a holding midfielder, capable of keeping the ball rolling – but he did a lot more than that in his first competitive appearance for the under 21s.
Would he and Nathaniel Chalobah work well together as the two, with a more “creative” type like James Ward-Prowse as the number 10 ahead of them?
We didn’t think England would need to shuffle around so much after playing a pretty consistent team during qualifying, but something’s been missing and Gareth Southgate needs to find out what it is.
2. Have some urgency
Loftus-Cheek could help with this problem, but it’s something that the entire team needs to go into the match thinking – rather than one player. We all want to see England playing attractive football, but the balance has been hard to strike during the group stages.
The pedestrian build up didn’t help England break down the Swedes – they scored from a long range Jesse Lingard strike – and if the senior team are anything to go by, Italy will be a lot harder to break down.
Only a quicker tempo and a willingness to play through the lines towards Harry Kane, and whoever is around him, will be sufficient.
Failing that, another long-range effort from Lingard will be needed.
3. Make Chalobah sit on Berardi
Domenico Berardi’s record speaks for itself – and if Italy are to score against England, you’d imagine he’d be involved somewhere along the way.
In England’s first group game, Chalobah was accused of playing too deep, almost on top of the defence, but if Chalobah was used to stifle Berardi, he’d also be in a good position to play the ball forward quickly after winning it.
4. Forget history
Yeah, historically England suck against the Italians, but historically England also suck against most other teams – barring San Marino.
The Italian team do not have a single player capped for their senior side at this tournament, and on paper at least it would look like England have the better team. The only question is if they’ll actually play like that – they have the ability, but do they know they have the ability?
5. Try something different
David James was scathing about Nathan Redmond’s performance against Sweden. Redmond, who’s usually a starter, should be dropped according to the former England keeper- and if he was to be left out, it would see England line up a little differently.
Ward-Prowse could potentially be played a little wider or, given how many goals Benik Afobe scored last season, he could be given a chance to show what he’s about – albeit less centrally than he’d like.
Then again, Kane hasn’t done phenomenal amounts for the team – at the risk of being burned at the stake for suggesting Kane be dropped, could one of Danny Ings or Afobe start instead of him?
These are the questions Southgate will be pondering ahead of Wednesday’s game, and he’ll need to get it right against an Italy side who can take all the points if England are complacent.
Source: SNAPPA
