Euro 2020 Qualifiers: 3 reasons why England beat Bulgaria

Harry Kane scored a hat-trick as England beat Bulgaria 4-0
Harry Kane scored a hat-trick as England beat Bulgaria 4-0

#2 England were rewarded for positive play

England's positive play was rewarded by four goals
England's positive play was rewarded by four goals

It was a largely frustrating afternoon for England as not only did Bulgaria play an extremely negative game, but Southgate’s men also looked devoid of creativity through the midfield for great swathes of the game and thus didn’t create too many chances. Thankfully, during their rare periods of truly positive play, things paid off in the form of 4 goals.

Raheem Sterling – England’s best player by a mile in the first half in particular – was responsible for two of them, stealing the ball following some suicidal Bulgarian defending to feed Harry Kane in the first half, and then scoring England’s third from close range following Kane’s cross. The other two goals came from Kane via the penalty spot, but both spot-kicks were earned by positive attacking play, from Marcus Rashford and Kane respectively.

The issue, however, was that this positivity wasn’t shown nearly enough. Quite why Southgate chose Ross Barkley ahead of both Mason Mount – who appeared as a substitute – and James Maddison is a mystery given the superior form at club level of the latter two players. Barkley did perform well in March’s qualifiers but was poor in the summer against the Netherlands and simply doesn’t appear to offer enough in the creative role, particularly against stodgy opposition like tonight’s.

Tuesday’s opponents – Kosovo – are likely to operate with a similar gameplan so hopefully, Southgate will choose to go with a different midfield; Harry Winks would offer an upgrade on Jordan Henderson but the key must be to replace the ineffective Barkley with James Maddison or Mount.

PREV 2 / 3 NEXT

Quick Links

Edited by Sai Teja