Spain’s high press provides England a reality check
After an encouraging World Cup and a 4th place finish, England were hoping to build on this achievement against a new Spanish side commanded by former FC Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique. A newer Spanish side that still boasted high technical and tactical qualities as its predecessors.
At Wembley, Spain fielded a 4–3–3 system with relatively no surprises in terms of players’ positioning. England meanwhile continued with the same shape they maintained throughout the World Cup, where they couldn’t find solutions against tougher oppositions who denied England the ability to build up comfortably, and play down the wings. Here, Spain pressed the England defence aggressively, covering their main options for ball progression; Saul and Thiago pressed Gomez and Henderson respectively, Aspas and Rodrigo covered the other center backs, while Isco kept his left sided position to cover Trippier. In addition to that, Busquets had the role of covering the player who dropped to support England’s build up, whether it was Lingard or Alli. As a result, Spain totally neutralized England’s build up, which was slightly lopsided towards the right side, and left Pickford the only option of hoofing it forward.
Despite the press, England managed early in the game to bypass it after some neat passing and a bit of luck, bypassing this lopsided press meant that there was space on the left side for Luke Shaw whose excellent pass for Rashford gave England the opportunity to take the lead. It only took a couple of minutes before Spain equalized, and in a fashion that the English fans have experienced before. Similar to the Croatia game, Spain switched the play from one side to the other as quick as possible, to give the full back more time on the ball before the England midfield trio translates to his side. This proved effective as it meant moving Shaw and Maguire in undesirable positions, and leaving Trippier in a 2 v 1 situation against Isco and Alonso. A simple solution would be for Rashford to drop into the left side when defending, but on the day he was given the task of marking Sergio Busquets to prevent the Spaniard from controlling the game.
Spain’s press continued, denying England the opportunity of any build up potential, and keeping the Spaniards in possession of the ball searching for any space on the wings. The control was maintained, however with little threat towards the England goal. They managed to get the second from a training ground set piece, Rodrigo the only player not in an offside position rushed forward to meet Thiago’s cross and put it past Pickford. And given how set pieces have been a huge factor in England’s improvement, Southgate will be disappointed with the players’ poor positioning in the second goal. After that, Rashford came close to double his tally from a Lingard cross but was denied by his Manchester United teammate De Gea.
In the second half, Enrique switched Aspas and Rordigo’s positions to provide more pace centrally. Southgate maintained his system, opting to continue marking Busquets rather than switching to a 5–4–1 on defensive transitions. An early injury in the half for Luke Shaw meant that England’s most positive offensive outlet in the first half had to leave the field, which only made things worse for Southgate’s side as Spain’s high press continued with no visible solution from the English side resulting in a high number of turnovers and inability to keep the ball.
As the game progressed and tiredness kicked in, Spain retreated into a lower defensive block, giving England’s defenders more time on the ball to find Rose and Trippier. England had chances to equalize as Rashford came close again but his poor finish was straight at De Gea, then a Maguire header didn’t find the target. Their most notable however was a dubious disallowed goal when De Gea stumbled into Welbeck, losing the ball for the English forward to put it into an empty net.
After the game, Southgate acknowledged the problems England endured throughout the ninety minutes, but new ideas should be introduced as the template to play against this England side is getting clearer by the game. As for Spain, another test beckons as they host Croatia in Elche on Tuesday night.
