Never before has such apathy existed around the England team. Even in the days of Steve McLaren, the ‘wally with the brolly’ who missed out on qualification to Euro 2008, people cared about the fortunes of the national side. That, it would seem, is longer the case, illustrated by the swathes of empty seats at Wembley for the win over Slovenia last week.
That game should have witnessed something of a ticker-tape sendoff for Gareth Southgate’s men as they qualified for the 2018 World Cup without losing a game. Yet there was a toxic sense of apathy around the fixture, and the one played away to Lithuania on Tuesday night. In fact, apathy might be better than what is gradually materialising.
At present, there is an open disdain for the England team and the management of Southgate. “To Russia with no love,” read one headline after their qualification for the World Cup was secured, summing up the mood of a country that has fallen out of love with its national side. Southgate didn’t exactly help things with his comments after the game, stating that the lethargic performance was a sign of where his team is at the moment.
England needs someone like Southgate, though. Far too often in the past, England have swaggered into major tournaments with impressive qualification records only to falter badly, just as they did at Euro 2016. They won all 10 qualifiers to make it to France, only to drop out to Iceland in the round of 16.
After that debacle, it was stated that England should take less notice of their qualification success ahead of major tournaments. They are no gauge upon which to base anything. So why would the script be flipped when England have played poorly in qualification? They mean very little and it’s about time the country realised this.
Look at around world football and there are footballing superpowers struggling to even make it to the World Cup. The Netherlands are all but out of contention, with European champions Portugal and four-time world champions Italy set for the play-offs. In South America, Argentina, complete with the world’s best player Lionel Messi, are scrambling to punch their ticket to Russia. Time might have already run out for them.
Things could be much worse and England should look at qualification as simply part of the process, as so many other countries do. FIFA treats qualification and the World Cup itself as two completely separate competitions, and that’s what England must do too. Qualifiers have in no way prepared them for what they will face in Russia next summer and Southgate, at the very least, recognises this.
"The style of the games, different,” he said after Tuesday’s win in Lithuania. “We'll be tested defensively, but there'll be a bit more space to play in, even though we'll be playing against a better quality of opposition. Our defenders need a different sort of challenge. They need to play out under more pressure, and to do defend against top strikers. That's part of their learning journey. If we're going to go with young players, how are they going to improve if they don't play against the best?"
It could well be that Southgate’s side flops, just as Roy Hodgson’s and Fabio Capello’s did before him. That might be something in the recent performances that suggest England will fail to reach the heights at the World Cup next summer, but past evidence hints that there is very little to be drawn from them. England will be at the party, and at this stage that’s all that matters.
