How England stopped Mbappe but couldn’t stop France

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“THE HIGHEST FORM of English heroism is stoicism in the face of failure”, wrote Stephanie Barczewski, and Gareth Southgate was it all incarnate last night.

Asked to criticize the referee, Southgate instead said he wanted to praise France. In many ways, Southgate has already achieved the impossible: his England side have been eliminated from the World Cup and is facing no recriminations but instead pleas to stay.

It’s a reflection not just of the job he has done with England on a macro level but also his management last night. It’s difficult to argue anything other than he got his approach right.

On paper he stuck with his 4-3-3 but the reality was slightly different. England dropped into a 4-3-3 without the ball but played a back three with the ball, Kyle Walker tucking in and hardly crossing the halfway line so as to keep tabs on Kylian Mbappe.

I took a snap from the press box to illustrate:

t was a very similar set-up to how Germany played in their first group game against Japan, who also switched to a back three in possession with the left-back pushing on and the right-back tucking in. The difference, of course, is that England had basic defensive abilities.

England did a fine job of shackling Kylian Mbappe. He caused a few scares from open play but he had one shot last night (which was off target) where he had at least five in each of the three games he started at the World Cup prior to last night.

But, unfortunately for England, France are not a one-man team….