Phil Foden's Freedom to Flick Relies on Southgate's England Staying Organized

 Phil Foden (left) scored two late goals against Iceland and was still impressively chasing apparently lost causes in the closing stages. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Phil Foden (left) scored two late goals against Iceland and was still impressively chasing apparently lost causes in the closing stages. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
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Phil Foden's Freedom to Flick Relies on Southgate's England Staying Organized

 Phil Foden (left) scored two late goals against Iceland and was still impressively chasing apparently lost causes in the closing stages. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Phil Foden (left) scored two late goals against Iceland and was still impressively chasing apparently lost causes in the closing stages. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

The best moment of England’s marathon international week came right at its very end. In the 90th minute against Iceland, with England 4-0 ahead, Harry Maguire cleared the ball high and long towards the right touchline, where Phil Foden – already two goals to the good – gamely chased down an inevitable lost cause.

Instead, as the ball dropped from an astronomical height, Foden cheekily heel-flicked it along the touchline to himself, sending Olafur Skulason spinning through spacetime: a perfectly scandalous piece of skill whereupon, had it emanated from your own two feet, you would have been well within your rights to pick up the ball and never play again.

Iceland were agreeably pliant opponents at Wembley on Wednesday, already relegated in the Nations League and probably exhausted. However Foden’s individual performance, capped by his breathtaking devilry on the right touchline, felt like its own self-contained puzzle: a moment of individual flourish that pointed the way to any number of possible conclusions. The question, as ever, is whether Gareth Southgate will draw the right ones.

For example, you could see in Foden’s exuberant, expressive confidence the importance of having a system that plays to his strengths. You could conclude that England are best served employing the sort of attacking tactics that give their flair players the biggest possible stage. You could posit that on this form Foden must start and that on this form Jack Grealish must start. And that in order to accommodate both alongside Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, plus at least one of Jadon Sancho or Marcus Rashford or Mason Mount, Southgate must ditch his widely despised 3-4-3 and return to the 4-3-3 that served England so well in late 2019.

This would be to draw the wrong conclusions.

The increasingly tiresome debate over 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 may have been relevant a few months ago but now feels like a red herring: a pointless wrangle over imaginary numbers. It is also largely based on a number of false dichotomies: between attack and defence, reactivity and proactivity, ambition and the lack of it. This should scarcely require pointing out but you can blitz teams with a 3-4-3 (like Marcelo Bielsa’s Chile), and you can set up a 4-3-3 to defend (like Neil Warnock’s QPR).

What matters far more is the inclination of the players you select, the outlook and the positional freedom with which you send them out, the conviction of your approach and the collective commitment to it. And yet a cursory glance through Thursday’s newspapers, along with the overwhelming weight of opinion online, would suggest the majority of pundits and England fans would be perfectly happy for Southgate to rip up a system he has spent the whole year working on, with maybe four games left before a major tournament.

The irony is we know exactly what would happen in this scenario, because it did happen. Four years ago, a tired and unmoored Roy Hodgson decided to cast aside his reputation for order and circumspection and discard his trusted diamond midfield on the eve of Euro 2016. It was a resounding victory for popular sentiment, neatly sidestepping the question of how to accommodate England’s wealth of attacking talent by playing it all at once. The 2-1 defeat to Iceland ended with Rashford, Kane, Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge, Dele Alli and Jack Wilshere all on the pitch at once.

The irony is England are in the enviable position of having a defined system and a firm grasp of the players they want to play it. Kane as striker, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin deputising. Sterling, Sancho, Grealish, Foden and Rashford to compete for the two wide berths. Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice, Mason Mount and Harry Winks (or Kalvin Phillips) in the centre. Bukayo Saka and Ben Chilwell on one flank; Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kieran Trippier (or Reece James) on the other.

Maguire, Kyle Walker, Eric Dier, Tyrone Mings and Michael Keane (or Conor Coady) at centre-half, assuming Joe Gomez is out for the season. Three goalkeepers. That’s your squad.

If this autumn’s Nations League has taught Southgate anything it is that the gulf to the top nations will be bridged by organisation, not by talent.

France, Spain and Belgium – who all won their respective leagues – are the three to beat on depth and current form. The Netherlands, Portugal and Germany (their 6-0 drubbing by Spain notwithstanding) are just a rung below. But Roberto Mancini’s Italy, who also qualified for next year’s finals, show what is possible when a more limited group of players collectively buy in to a defined style of play.

All of which brings us back to Foden and his little bit of skill on the touchline. The lesson from Wednesday was that the individual outrages, the Foden flicks, the Grealish shimmies, the long-range screamers that turn big tournament games, exist largely independently of systems and formations. What inhibits them is not tactics but uncertainty, a lack of conviction, an absence of cohesion, a fear of judgment.

And so, as England and Southgate approach the home stretch, what matters is not so much the system they play but that they know and commit to it thoroughly. This, perhaps, has been the real value of the autumn internationals: a chance to drill and hone a style of play that may not yet be producing exemplary results but may well do with time. Or, put more tritely: one plan may be better than none but it’s certainly better than two.

The Guardian Sport



2 Sailors Die in the Stormy First Night of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Organizers Say

 Spectators at North Head watch yachts compete during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbor on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
Spectators at North Head watch yachts compete during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbor on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
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2 Sailors Die in the Stormy First Night of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Organizers Say

 Spectators at North Head watch yachts compete during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbor on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
Spectators at North Head watch yachts compete during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbor on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Two sailors on separate boats have been killed in boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the annual Sydney to Hobart race, adding to the event's long history of deaths at sea.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, which administers the yacht race, said Friday that one sailor each on entrants Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline were killed after being struck by the boom, a large horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail.

New South Wales Police Superintendent Joe McNulty identified the two dead sailors as a 55-year-old man from Western Australia (on Flying Fish Arctos) and a 65-year-old man from South Australia (on Bowline).

He said the crews on both boats, which had been seized by police for evidence, were "doing it pretty tough at the moment."

"We’ve got police getting talking to them, doctors and counselling. They’re assisting with our inquiries. They are shaken up by what they’ve seen ... and they didn’t give up."

Officials later said a sailor was washed overboard on another boat, but was rescued. That crew member was from Hobart yacht Porco Rosso, and he drifted a kilometer from the yacht before being rescued.

The incident triggered the crew member’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon, a safety device that must be worn by all sailors in the race.

"That is one of the most terrifying experiences that you can have," said David Jacobs, vice-commodore of the CYCA. "(And) it was at night, which makes it tenfold more scary."

The deaths come 26 years after six sailors were killed in storms during the 1998 running of the race, which triggered a state coronial inquest and mass reforms to the safety protocols — including the radio beacon on all sailors — that govern the race. There have been 13 fatalities in the 79-year history of the race, with four of those deaths resulting from sailor heart attacks.

The fleet was continuing its passage to Constitution Dock in Hobart, Tasmania, with the first boats expected to arrive early Saturday morning. The race is 628 nautical miles (722 miles, 1,160 kilometers) long.

Jacobs reiterated the race would "absolutely" continue.

"The conditions are challenging, but they’re not excessive," he said. "So we’ve got sort of winds at about 25 knots coming from the north seas around about two meters or thereabouts, so the conditions that most of the sailors would normally easily handle."

"The sailing community is a very close community. There’s about a thousand sailors on the water in this race, and to lose two in this fashion is just devastating."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the sailors who died.

"We have sadly awoken to tragedy in the Sydney to Hobart with the awful news that two sailors have lost their lives," he said. "Our thoughts are with the crews, their families and loved ones at this deeply sad time."

The incident aboard Flying Fish Arctos occurred around 30 nautical miles east-southeast of Ulladulla on the New South Wales south coast. Crew members attempted CPR but could not revive their teammate.

The crew member aboard Bowline was struck approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of Batemans Bay and fell unconscious, with CPR also unsuccessful.

"As these incidents are being dealt with by the Water Police and all family members are yet to be contacted, we cannot provide further details at this stage," the CYCA said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased."

The first all-Filipino crew of 15 sailors was entered in the 2024 race, but was among the retirements because of the weather. With veteran sailor Ernesto Echauz at the helm, Centennial 7 was one of six international entrants and includes sailors from the Philippines’ national team and the Philippines navy.

Last year, LawConnect won line honors after holding off defending champion Comanche by less than a minute in an exciting finish between the super maxis. LawConnect, which was runner-up in the last three editions of the race, finished in 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes, 58 seconds. Comanche’s time was 1 day, 19 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds — a margin of just 51 seconds.

Comanche, which was among the retirements in this year's race, holds the race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, set when it won in 2017.

Nearly 26 hours into the race, 85 entrants were still sailing and 19 yachts had retired at sea or in port.

LawConnect, which led out of Sydney Harbor on Thursday, was ahead in the race but still had about 150 nautical miles before reaching Hobart. It could mean an overnight finish for the leading yachts early Saturday. Celestial V70 was in second place, about 20 nautical miles behind LawConnect.