By Faniki Deche, Sports Editor
The Football Writers Association, Student Football Writer of the Year is an annual writing competition for aspiring football journalists in university. It consists of three categories: the Hugh Mcllvanney Male Writer of the Year, the Vikki Orvice Female Writer of the Year and the Kick It Out Unheard Voices Writer of the Year. You only need to send the association an 800 word piece of writing and if you are shortlisted into their top ten then you earn a free press ticket to an England/FA Cup match live at Wembley. Fortunately, my article covering the recent rise of Tanzanian football got shortlisted and as a result I was able to represent Epigram in Thomas Tuchel's first game as England manager against Albania.
England asserted their dominance from the very beginning. Lining up in a 4-2-3-1, in possession it became a 4-1-4-1 with Declan Rice being the lone six with Curtis Jones pushing forward, occupy England's right half space with Bellingham doing so on the left channel. Albania looked to counter this with a 4-5-1 mid block but Bellingham's constant runs in behind that left half space with Kane dropping deep pushed them slowly back to their penalty box. It looked like the plan was to find Bellingham at the end of a third-man run combination with a chipped ball in behind from Declan Rice. This never materialized but territorial dominance was assured.
With that being said, Bellingham's involvement in England's first goal was totally different from what he was attempting thus far. He picked the ball in the central space, used his physique to spin round Myrto Uzuni and play a delightful through ball to the debutant, Myles Lewis-Skelly, in behind for a dream debut goal (England's youngest debutant scorer). It was only after the restart, twenty minutes in, that Albania were able to string together a sequence of more than five passes. If anything this was emblematic of England's successful press.
The most glaring difference between Tuchel's England with Southgate's that lost the Euros Final to Spain was their pressing structure which appeared to be more cohesive than in Berlin eight months ago. It was an aggressive 4-4-2 with Kane and Bellingham taking up Albania's two centre backs. One of Albania's double pivot (Kristjan Asllani but mainly Ylber Ramadani) would drop in to receive which would trigger the run of Curtis Jones with Declan Rice jumping on the other midfielder, squeezing Albania within their final third. Of course the issue is that this leaves a gap between England's defensive and midfield lines which were being occupied by either Qazim Laçi or Nedim Bajrami and Jasir Asani drifting in from wide. Fortunately for England, they were able to force Albania into a rushed clearance from their goalkeeper towards their striker Uzuni who was totally mismatched in the air against Dan Burn. This weakness still exists though so it would be interesting to see what approach Tuchel would take against more press resistant sides like Spain or opposition who could successfully bypass this with direct balls from their keeper to a more physically dominant striker, like an Erling Haaland.
The second half saw England experiment more with the abilities of Lewis-Skelly with him inverting more into midfield as Bellingham pulled wide to combine with Rashford. The target was to 'take more risks' according to Tuchel by combining more in the middle to find their wide players one vs one against their fullbacks quicker. This strategy did not really work as he later lamented the lack of 'ball carrying' from England. Rashford saw more opportunities to take his fullback on but things were not quite coming off for him. Meanwhile, this style does not fit Foden who is more comfortable with the ball to feet for him to link up and play penetrative passes from the inside. But that role is being fulfilled by Bellingham so just like in the Euros, we do not know what Foden's role is. It is no wonder why most of England's attacks came from their left with Kyle Walker's overlapping runs being England's true outlet on the right leaving them a bit more exposed on the counter resulting in a brief period midway through the second half of end-to-end football.
Furthermore, although Dan Burn proved to be a very useful threat in set pieces as England deployed the same corner routine used by Newcastle a week earlier (back-post to Burn), he was defensively shaky at points. A mis-clearance early on almost looped into Pickford's net and when the more physically imposing Armando Broja was introduced, he struggled to keep him in check, relying on Ezri Konsa to bail him out with a last ditch challenge after he lost his aerial duel which set Asani through on goal.
In the end, Albania were unable to capitalize on England's weaknesses with a deft touch and finish from Harry Kane securing the Three Lions a solid 2-0 win to kick off Tuchel's tenure. Overall, it was a great experience and you could have it too. The Award's deadline this year is on the 8th of April. As for England, some issues still persist and stronger teams can look to exploit their press but the future looks bright with Lewis-Skelly and as starts go, this was solid.
Featured image: Abbie Jensen
