After the anthem furore, admissions of self-doubt and a confident win… this weekend taught Lee Carsley what it REALLY means to manage England, writes IAN LADYMAN
- Lee Carsley had doubts over whether he could manage at international level
- But, the 50-year-old now has a feel for it after a weekend that was full of drama
- SOCCER A-Z: Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube. New episodes every Wednesday
There have been times, says Lee Carsley, when he wondered if he was good enough to coach at international level.
After what turned out to be a more rigorous examination of his credentials than he perhaps anticipated in Ireland, he now says he feels emboldened.
The rest of it from here will be determined by his results in charge of the England senior team. Carsley is now one game into a six-match audition for the full-time position and, ahead of Tuesday's game at Wembley against Finland, his cause at least has a little momentum behind it.
England played well in beating Republic of Ireland and were easy on the eye in doing so. For the 50-year-old, it is a start.
Certainly we know more about him now than we did this time last week. Two days in Dublin have been more instructive than we could possibly have imagined.
Lee Carsley admitted he had doubts over whether he could manage at international level
England played well in their 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland and they were easy on the eye
The reaction to his decision not to sing the national anthem does not appear to have bothered him. Whichever side of that debate you sit on, it’s hard not to conclude that his reaction to the noise has been measured and within context. He does not have any interest in being a statesman, he said, he just wants to coach.
In the long-term — if indeed there is to be one for Carsley — that will probably prove easier to say than do. As manager of the England team, you will be sucked into wider, deeper and often rather tenuous issues, whether you like it or not.
Nevertheless Carsley has declared this position as his starting point for the job and it was interesting to hear him reflect on his own journey from self-doubt to belief after this game.
‘You always think it’s easy to be the England manager when you’re sat in the house,’ Carsley said. ‘But there have been times where I’ve thought: “I’m not sure I could do it, I’m not sure”. So this has done my confidence good, and the rest of the staff as well, to think actually we’re OK, we’ll be all right.’
The reaction to Carsley’s comments about the anthem on Friday has been felt deeply at FA headquarters. As a coach who has been in their system for years, executives feel protective of him.
There was nothing new in anything Carsley did compared to his previous spell as Under 21 boss. He wore a tracksuit, carried a black iPad and even put the cones out for the warm-up 75 minutes before kick-off.
Regarding the football England played, however, there were some differences. Carsley has stated it should be the national team’s aim to learn how to control matches. Despite their passage to the final of Euro 2024, they palpably failed to do that in the summer.
At the Aviva Stadium, we saw some of that. England were particularly good in the first half and it was here the game was won.
They did fade in the second and that did not escape Carsley’s attention. Producing 90-minute performances has been another recent England problem.
Pleasingly, the bigger decisions he made in squad and team selection were vindicated. Jack Grealish and Anthony Gordon flourished on the back of possession and tactical freedom.
The reaction to Carsley’s comments about the anthem has been felt deeply at FA headquarters
Jack Grealish and Anthony Gordon flourished on the back of possession and tactical freedom
Trent Alexander- Arnold enjoyed playing in his club position and provided the pass of the match for the opening goal, scored by Declan Rice. Harry Maguire, another player on recall, was also impressive.
We should be careful before making sweeping judgements after one game. There are those already looking to use a 2-0 win over modest opposition to castigate Carsley’s predecessor Gareth Southgate.
That’s as predictable as it is pitiful. Is Alexander-Arnold, for example, really a better traditional right back at the highest level than Kyle Walker? It is hard to say so and we will find out. But for now we will work on the evidence we have and Carsley delivered what he said he would — control, freedom and a good result.
‘I think we have to be careful with terminology like freedom,’ said Carsley. ‘We have tried to get really effective players in really effective areas, to do what they’re good at.
‘If you call that freedom, maybe it is, but if you call that freedom then with that comes a real responsibility out of possession and I thought we did really well at times. We made the pitch really small and were able to suffocate Ireland and get the ball back.
‘We need to control games. The end goal is doing that against the top teams in the world in the biggest moments. The players have got two years to get to that point before the next World Cup. We have gone a good way to doing that, but we’ve only had four sessions so it’s early.
‘The players have to take huge credit for trying a few things that we have worked on and going out there and doing it themselves.’
Given the way England’s football lost a little purpose in the second half, it would have been nice to see Carsley use his substitutes earlier than the 77th minute. Reactive tactics were something Southgate was rightly accused of in the summer. How much can a player contribute in 13 minutes?
We should be careful before making sweeping judgements after one game under Carsley
Carsley has the opportunity to make good on his positive first impressions against Finland
Going forward, though, Carsley now has the opportunity to make good his positive first impressions tomorrow at Wembley against a Finland team that lost 3-0 in Greece on Saturday. This is Nations League B, remember, and England really should stroll through their group.
There will be further scrutiny of his stance on the anthem as his short tenure progresses. That issue will follow him for a while and heaven knows what will be said if he loses a game. He claims to hold no grudges in relation to his critics, though, and no regrets either.
Given what he had woken up to on Saturday, things played out as well as he could probably have imagined from that point on. Whatever happens, there appears to be a certain equanimity about the interim England coach that is hard not to like.
