Gareth Southgate tells England players to forget past failures and points way to bright future

James Olley18 June 2018

Gareth Southgate's England have talked like a new team unburdened by the past. Now they must play like it.

The setting for tonight’s World Cup opener against Tunisia provides perspective but also a reminder that history is something to be learned from.

Opposite the Volgograd Arena stands Europe’s tallest statue, The Motherland Calls, which commemorates the battle of Stalingrad and the Soviet Union lives lost during the Second World War.

Volgograd has twice changed its name to create a new identity and was handed its current moniker in 1961, as Nikita Khrushchev implemented a process of de-Stalinisation after the former Soviet dictator’s death.

This imposing 45,000-seat venue on the banks of the Volga opened in April at the end of a construction process complicated by the discovery of more than 200 wartime shells and other armaments, in addition to the bodies of two unidentified Soviet soldiers.

Tonight’s match is the first of these finals to be staged in a city rebuilt but still scarred; especially keen to put its best foot forward after a preamble of escalating political rhetoric from the Kremlin and the West.

“There’s a lot of talk about relationships between our country and Russia but the history is very strong between the two countries from that war period,” said the England manager. “To see the statue and have an understanding of the history reminds you some things are bigger than football. That’s good perspective for us all.”

Lending perspective has been a key element of Southgate’s effectiveness in his role to this point.

The 47-year-old has quietly stage-managed the introduction and development of several young players, while also managing expectations yet nurturing conservative optimism.

Southgate has been thoughtful, open and expressive: everything he wants his England team to be.

In turn, the players embraced the media at St George’s Park and have been candid in a series of subsequent interviews at their Repino training base, while taking steps to show a different facet of their characters by playing darts, going 10-pin bowling and engaging with fans on social media.

Now they must show the side of themselves that matters most: replicating that freedom of expression on the pitch in the most unforgiving of environments. For all the cautious optimism that youth, pace, energy and invention can bring, England must defy a track record of allowing their inhibitions to consume them.

Southgate joins a long list of managers expecting no such mental hurdle. “First and foremost, I’m looking forward to watching the way the lads play because the way that they’ve trained, the way they played in the two matches leading in, the way they played in November and March, we seem to be improving all the time,” he said.

“The patterns of play are becoming more apparent and I like the way that we are using the ball. Normally, what you see on the training ground is converted into the match and I don’t expect that to be any different tonight.

“The intensity of the competition is of a really good level and if training isn’t like that, then the standards can drop. That’s been really pleasing.”

In Pictures | England 2018 World Cup Training | 15.06.18

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Harry Kane embodied the confidence in the camp by welcoming the suggestion Cristiano Ronaldo had turned up the heat in his pursuit of the Golden Boot with a hat-trick against Spain.

Kane must surely thrive for England to do well at this World Cup. Their opening-game record — they have not won the first match at a tournament since 2006 — is a concern, but Germany, Argentina and Brazil have underlined the difficulty in starting with the desired result.

Southgate has set up England in a 3-5-2 system to give them greater control in midfield and more variety in attack. The theory is sound, the practice runs were promising, but can they maximise their ability?

The memory of Kane frazzled at Euro 2016, or England so woefully undone in Brazil two years earlier still endures.

“The history can help us understand what we can do better than in the past, but this team shouldn’t be burdened with it because this is a fresh group,” said Southgate.

“Most of them have very few international caps, so the future is ahead of them. They have to be thinking about what’s possible.”

Some fans have been deterred from travelling and the local supermarkets imposed a ban on selling alcohol in glass bottles, mindful of the English being in town. A positive display here can help win over Russian hearts and minds while reframing England’s identity in a more progressive light.

“There have been a lot of perceptions about our players for a long time and I don’t think that’s been the truth,” said Southgate. Now is the time to show us what they really are.

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