England’s Lionesses Show The Men’s Side Why An Elite Coach Matters

With 30 minutes remaining against Spain, it looked like the dream of success at a home Euros was about to fall apart for England’s Women.

Esther Gonzalez had capitalized on the Spanish dominance to grab a 1-0 lead and, down the left flank, in particular, the Lionesses were looking exposed.

Having strolled through their previous games with 5-0 and 8-0 wins against Northern Ireland and Norway, which came after the 1-0 triumph over Austria, this was the first bit of adversity the team had faced.

Naming an unchanged starting lineup and tactical system for every game in the tournament up to that point, this was the moment coach Sarina Wiegman was called upon to have an in-game influence.

The Dutchwoman had been brought in by the national team for precisely this. Already with two domestic titles to her name, she was victorious in the most recent European Championships with the Netherlands, a side she took over on a losing streak.

As Football Association director of women’s football Sue Campbell said when the appointment was announced: “Sarina was our number one choice. She’s the perfect cultural fit for us, which is crucially important in building a winning team. Her technical expertise, leadership skills and winning mentality is hugely impressive.”

The changes Wiegman made when she was challenged by Spain demonstrated why the Football Association had her at the top of its list.

Removing England Women’s all-time leading goalscorer Ellen White and the competition’s top goalscorer Beth Mead was a risk, but replacements

Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo were crucial in helping shift momentum.

Switching a more defensively-minded left-back in the form of Alex Greenwood for the struggling Rachel Daly could have backfired too, however, by securing the wing she enabled the team to be more progressive.

All this was done while making the tactical shift from a possession-based approach to a more direct style of play against a side well equipped to punish them.

But an equalizer, from another substitute Ella Toone, took the game to extra time where Georgia Stanway was able to come up with a winner. A spectacular vindication of Wiegman’s methods.

In her post-game analysis, the England coach reflected on how they’d managed to turn the tide.

“In terms of a test and a setback and how we came back, we stuck to it,” she said, “plan B was also [used for] a couple of minutes and then we scored. I’m so proud of the team.”

Having a viable plan B is not something English national team soccer is used to seeing and the men’s team should take note.

_{Gareth Southgate and Phil Neville: The rise of the unqualified}

Seeing an England team triumph in adversity, it was hard not to reflect on the toils of the Lionesses’ male counterparts.

He may be the most successful manager since Sir Alf Ramsey, but men’s coach Gareth Southgate’s reign has been dominated by a failure to react to adversity.

Having built a solid, if sometimes uninspiring, starting 11 that has progressed to the latter stages of two major tournaments, the abiding lesson of heartbreaking defeats to Italy and Croatia has been the inability to tackle a shift in momentum.

As I have pointed out previously, the logical explanation for why Southgate would be outthought by a manager like Roberto Mancini is because he has the worst CV of any England manager.

This was something that, up until 2020, was matched by his counterpart at the England Women’s team.

Phil Neville somehow managed to land the national team role having only ever managed one game at Salford City, a team he is the joint-owner of.

The decision to appoint him was rightly met with derision by many sections of the media who described it as an “insult” to women’s soccer in England.

To be fair to Neville, his performance was not as bad as his CV would suggest it might be.

The high point was a run to the Semi-Finals of the 2019 World Cup, where, just like his counterpart Southgate, the former Manchester United defender was unable to respond to the United States getting the upper hand.

A crucial difference between the two men is that, while Gareth Southgate has conducted himself with eloquent dignity, Phil Neville spent most of his England managerial career trying to recover from one controversial statement he’d made.

The coach, who was not shy in explaining that he thought a lot of his abilities, also turned out to be remarkably thin-skinned when criticism came his way.

It all made for a rather unsavory sideshow, which the team is undoubtedly better without.

Gareth Southgate, on the other hand, is class personified, but therein lies the issue, discarding him as a coach also removes the best statesman the English game has had since Sir Bobby Robson was in charge.

But the cold hard truth is he is vastly under-qualified for the role, the men’s team needs a coach in the mold of Wiegman, a proven winner.

Ahead of the tournament, she made the bold call of leaving long-time England captain Steph Houghton out of the squad, unconvinced that her fitness was at the required level.

It caused a stir but was exactly the type of clinical decision the men’s team has lacked since Glen Hoddle left Paul Gascoigne at home for France 98’.

The 20 years since have been followed by weak managers taking half-injured stars to tournaments in the hope they’ll hit form, from Gareth Barry to Jack Wilshere and Wayne Rooney, it’s never worked out.

For the England men’s team to finally go one better than all the previous talented generations of stars that have failed at the greatest stage, they need a manager like Weigman in the dugout.