Only way is up for England as Gareth Southgate will use past World Cup frustrations to good use in Russia

John Dillon1 December 2017

Gareth Southgate will be the first England coach in 20 years to have both played at a World Cup for the team and then led them there as manager.

Not only that, the first match he played was against Tunisia at France 98 under Glenn Hoddle. As part of a three-man defence, alongside Tony Adams and Sol Campbell.

This will be the way Southgate’s team line-up when they kick off next year’s final against the Tunisians in Volgograd on June 18. He’s made that clear already and he’s not going back on it.

You can see where he gets some of his ideas. Now there’s something tangible to underline the suggestion that the current team might benefit from Southgate’s own experiences on the pitch as well as off it – in a way the team did not under Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson.

It's something, anyway. After the dismal experiences of the previous two tournaments in South Africa and Brazil, we’ll take every glimmer of advantage we can lay our eyes on for our young squad, won’t we?

We’ll buy big time into the vein of sports thinking that seeks to pile up as many incremental bonuses as possible in order to increase all-around potential and belief, with Panama and Belgium to come in the following fixtures.

Paul Scholes and Alan Shearer scored in a 2-0 defeat of Tunisia in that game in Marseilles nearly two decades ago which was accompanied by days of some of the worst rioting involving England fans, who clashed with city’s large north African population.

It is memorable because it was the beginning of England’s most painfully unfulfilled World Cup campaign since the semi-final defeat in Italy in 1990.

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In France, England famously lost in the second round on penalties against Argentina.

Under Eriksson, the quarter-finals were reached in Japan in 2002 and Germany in 2006.

But there remains to this day a sense that a squad astutely coached by Hoddle in 1998 and filled with so many serious footballers – that back three, Shearer, Scholes, Sheringham, Ince, Beckham & Co. – were cruelly denied by the lottery of the shootout and were the ones who really might have achieved something big.

The idea is a part of the mental make-up Southgate will take to the competition. Certainly, that brief but dramatic French adventure seems to have influenced his thinking about the suitability of the three-man defence for international football, even though it back in fashion in the club game now, too.

And maybe, just maybe, the current crop of youthful but immensely rich and feted young players under his command will find some inspiration from playing under a fellow Englishman who has been there and done it, at Euro 96 as well as in the World Cup.

They will not be expected to make any significant impact next summer. But even without making too many big presumptions, surely this draw at least removes some - only some, mind - of the anxiety which now accompanies England to the big competitions in place of the expectations which used to burden them so heavily.

Surely, England and Belgium will both have tied up the Group G in time for them to battle it out for first and second place in Kaliningrad on June 28.

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Tunisia qualified as winners of Africa’s Group G but one preview guide to the draw listed their star player as Youssef Msakni of Al-Duhail from the Qatari League.

It is not politeness or political correctness which requires England to be wary of fixtures against such opponents. It is reality and history the memory of unconvincing performances like those against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 tournament.

Yet still, it should not be beyond the capabilities of the Premier League’s young guns to negotiate a way past them – even if the game will stir memories of the dismal goalless draw against Algeria under Capello in 2010.

Negotiate will probably be the key word, though. It probably won’t be pretty or thrilling because it rarely is with England. At least we should expect to get through it, however.

Panamas qualified behind Mexico and Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Americas setup and at their first World Cup, happily, admit they are simply going to learn.

They are said to be solid and well-organised. And the Colombian coach, Hernan Dario Gomez, has led four teams at World Cup finals so he knows all the ropes.

Cue, then, another probable exercise in England’s tortuous method of breaking down such sides. But cue a victory as well, surely?

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Then, in all likelihood, will come a shootout with the Belgians to secure the most promising berth in the round of 16.

Unbeaten in qualifying, they scored 43 times in 10 games. And you know all the names – Lukaku, De Bruyne, Hazard, Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Kompany. With Roberto Martinez and Thierry Henry in the dugout.

It could be like a good old-fashioned English cup tie if the top two places are up for grabs. And the cup is a great leveller. Hopefully.

English fans must hope, too, that another long-established rule of the game will be at work in Russia.

Things were so bleak in South Africa in 2010 – and even more desperate in Brazil three years ago – that they simply cannot get any worse this time around.

This is a draw which helps that idea. It could have been much tougher. So the only way is up now.

How far up depends on the momentum and the confidence England establish once they get to Russia and not the phoney war of words and conjecture which will now ensue until June.

Momentum and confidence have been so glaringly obvious at recent tournaments. This is a group which hands Southgate the chance to put that right very quickly in Russia.

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