World Cup 2018: 5 factors England need to get right to have a successful

Tomorrow night marks England’s latest step towards their World Cup campaign – a friendly match with fellow World Cup contenders Nigeria at Wembley.

With just one more warm-up game to play after that – against Costa Rica – the Three Lions’ preparation will soon be over and they’ll soon be lining up against Tunisia in Volgograd.

Recent tournaments haven’t been kind to England – they haven’t gone further than the Round of 16 since 2006 – but if Gareth Southgate wants to change that, he probably needs to look at these five factors that England need to get right to have a successful World Cup.

#1 Pick the system, not the players

England have suffered in the past by picking players out of position, such as using Paul Scholes as a left midfielder

One issue England have suffered from in past tournaments has been a total inability to find a tactical system that works. Past England managers have fallen into the trap of simply picking the most talented players and shoe-horning them into the side regardless of whether they fit together – a case of square pegs in round holes.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Euro 2004 team, for instance, was packed full of talent, but suffered from imbalance as he insisted on playing Paul Scholes on the left side of midfield, while two attacking players – Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard – played in the middle without a holding man to protect them.

Even as recently as Euro 2016, Roy Hodgson bungled England’s chances by trying to cram as many of his stars into his side as possible, even moving Wayne Rooney into an unfamiliar midfield role rather than make the tough call to remove him in favour of younger players like Dele Alli and Harry Kane.

To succeed in Russia, Gareth Southgate must avoid this temptation. He’s already shown that he seems to know the system he wants to use – three defenders across the back, two wing-backs, and two central holding players behind two attacking midfielders with Harry Kane as the lone striker.

Will this system work? To be quite frank, it’s hard to tell. But in the very least, Southgate probably needs to stick to this system in order to gain some consistency, and he needs to ensure the players he picks fit into the system, rather than trying to fit the system around them.

#2 Play without fear

England's players looked crippled by fear in their Euro 2016 loss to Iceland

One major criticism of England teams in past tournaments has been that they appear to be crippled by fear when the going gets tough and simply look unable to recreate their club form when they pull on the famous white shirt.

Look at Euro 2016, for instance – England defeated finalists France and Portugal – as well as semi-finalists Germany – in games leading up to the tournament, but once the big games came around they simply couldn’t operate under the pressure, choked, and ended up losing to Iceland in one of the English game’s ultimate low points.

So how can Southgate’s men stop this rot? Simply put, they must ignore the press reports, ignore the pressure put on them by both the doubting fans and the fans that never stop believing that they’re the best team in the world, and ignore their own nagging feelings of doubt too.

Sounds easy, right? Of course not, but if England want to succeed this time where they’ve failed before, they need to play without fear – in the same way, that their biggest stars like Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson do when they play for their clubs.

It is possible – and hopefully, Southgate’s selection of an exuberant, youthful side might help them do it.

#3 Better game management

England showed poor game management against Russia in Euro 2016 by not pushing for a second goal after Eric Dier's opener

In past tournaments, England have often struggled when it comes to game management – when to shut up shop, when to push for another goal, or when to change things up when things aren’t going to plan.

Their opening match at Euro 2016 saw them take the lead against Russia after dominating the game, but rather than push the ragged Russians to get a killer second goal, Roy Hodgson’s men sat back and tried to see the match out – and ended up conceding a late equaliser, killing any momentum they had.

It’s important that in this tournament, England learn to use better game management than this if they want to succeed. It’s something the Three Lions have struggled with going back to the Sven-Goran Eriksson era in the early 2000’s, but can Gareth Southgate be the man to change that?

Quite possibly. After all, while he’s a relatively inexperienced manager at the elite level, as a player he featured in one of England’s most successful tournaments since 1966 – the Euro 96 campaign.

In that tournament, Terry Venables’ side knew exactly when to kill a game off – witness the 4-1 mauling of the Netherlands – and also when to shut up shop, like in their 0-0 draw with Spain which they eventually won in a penalty shoot-out.

Hopefully, Southgate has learned from his experiences on that side and can help England to avoid a repeat of the debacles of recent years when it comes to game management.

#3 Be more streetwise

England will need to be more streetwise to avoid incidents like Wayne Rooney's 2006 red card repeating themselves

One of the biggest complaints from England fans in past tournaments has been that the Three Lions simply aren’t streetwise enough to succeed against more cynical, less morally-inclined sides.

World Cup 1986, for instance, saw them infamously beaten by Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’, while both David Beckham and Wayne Rooney fell afoul of some gamesmanship in 1998 and 2006 respectively and found themselves red-carded in crucial knockout games that England went on to lose.

I’m not suggesting that England should resort to cheating in order to win their games in Russia, but to see them be a little more streetwise – perhaps going down a little more easily in the penalty area, or surrounding the referee to attempt to get an opposition player dismissed – might help them to succeed.

England certainly have the personnel to do this – Dele Alli, Ashley Young and Harry Kane have all been accused of going down a little easily in the past season, while Jamie Vardy’s goal in a recent friendly against Italy – set up by Jesse Lingard’s quick thinking – suggests England are becoming a little edgier.

Hopefully, then, 2018 will be the tournament when another country goes home while complaining about England pulling somewhat of a fast one – rather than the other way around!

#5 Know when to change it up

Gareth Southgate must make full use of likely substitutes like Ruben Loftus-Cheek

The use of substitutes is always a tricky topic to debate in football. At what time is it best for a manager to make a change and send someone fresh on? Is it better to stick with your original side and hope they deliver, or hook someone who might be playing badly without giving them a chance to atone?

It’s an issue that’s plagued past England managers on numerous occasions. Euro 2016 saw the best and worst of both sides – Roy Hodgson decided to go for broke against Wales, sending on Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge and Marcus Rashford from the bench in an effort to break the Welsh resistance, and eventually it worked – Vardy and Sturridge scored to give England a 2-1 win.

Against Iceland however, Hodgson simply left it too late, and only sent Rashford on only when the game seemed beyond England, despite the Manchester United player seemingly being the only man playing without any fear.

Gareth Southgate might not have the deepest squad to rely on this time and critics have already stated that he doesn’t necessarily have players who can change a game from the bench. But in Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Ruben Loftus-Cheek – all of whom may not start – he does have a handful of tyros capable of pulling out something special.

Let’s hope that unlike Hodgson, he knows exactly when it’s time to use them.