Newcastle United player triumphs at Wembley as cunning Lee Carsley plan backfires | OneFootball

Thursday night at Wembley ended England 1 Greece 2.

Lee Carsley taking charge of his third game, having overseen a very good start in ‘interim’ charge.

England having won 2-0 against both the Republic of Ireland and Finland in the September internationals.

Lee Carsley had looked a certainty to get the job on a permanent basis, with The FA having bottled it when it came to naming Gareth Southgate’s replacement, refusing to name Lee Carsley, or anybody else, as permanent boss, instead giving it to Carsley on an ‘interim’ basis, when in reality clearly a six game interview.

September to November seeing all six Nations League group matches (dates below) played out and so long as England did the business on the pitch, then it appeared obvious that Lee Carsley would get the job on a permanent basis.

With England facing Greece, Finland and Republic of Ireland, home and away, surely it was his for the taking….

The ‘interim’ boss going for a more experimental side with Bellingham as a ‘false’ number nine, with Kane carrying a knock and both Watkins and Solanke left on the bench.

Anthony Gordon starting on the left and Saka on the right, with Nick Pope and Tino Livramento amongst the subs.

This allowed both Foden and Palmer to play as well, in more free central roles.

Lee Carsley won the Under 21s Euros last year, playing a very similar system, with Cole Palmer in a more central role and Anthony Gordon as the ‘false’ number nine.

With so much Premier League (and La Liga…) attacking talent on the pitch, what could possibly go wrong…?

When in possession, England also had Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rico Lewis coming into midfield from their full-back positions.

For all people will want to blame all of this on Lee Carsley for his tactics and formation, there is still only so much a manager can do once the players get on the pitch.

England only managed two efforts on target all match and that includes Bellingham’s 87th equaliser. Newcastle United (third, or is it fourth?) goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos in goal for Greece as usual and very unlucky as he was unsighted and yet he managed to get a hand to the strong shot but it still went in the net.

The only other England effort on target was also from the Real Madrid player, 83 minutes earlier, the Newcastle keeper pulling off a superb flying save to tip it behind for a corner.

For all England struggled to create chances at the other end as the attacking players appeared to be getting in the way of each far too often, you have to look at the shambles at the other end.

After quarter of an hour, Jordan Pickford embarrassingly lost the ball outside his area and a certain goal only averted by a fantastic Colwill clearance.

That though didn’t prevent Greece actually putting the ball in the England net on five occasions. Pickford and England saved on three occasions by VAR and the linesman’s flag.

Pavlidis scoring four minutes after the break. Some woeful defeding, especially from captain for the night John Stones who let his opponent walk past him in the box, whilst I thought Pickford could have done better as the shot went past him in the middle of the goal, though made more difficult as it went through a player’s legs.

Saka then went off injured, followed by Gordon and Foden, who were also subbed. This allowing Chelsea winger Madueke and strikers Watkins and Solanke to come on.

To be honest though, this is the problem. Whilst plenty of England fans have wanted to see an alternative to Harry Kane, I don’t think either of these convince in any way that they should play number nine as first choice.

They made minimal to no difference and when Watkins was played through with just Vlachidomos to beat, he blazed that great chance over the bar.

It was a great strike from Bellingham that rescued England and came against the direction of travel, as Greece had looked far more likely to add a second.

That ‘rescue’ did indeed prove very temporary, as Pavlidis struck for a second time seven minutes later, with Pickford and his defence all over the place.

Both Lewis and Alexander-Arnold might be very good footballers BUT they aren’t very good defenders, to say the least. The Liverpool ‘defender’ in particular, the scousers might have a set-up they use to cover up for their right-back’s glaring defensive weaknesses, but I don’t think it has ever worked for England, wherever they play him.

Lee Carsley could have subbed any of his attacking players apart from Bellingham, Foden and Gordon were no better or worse than any of the others who could have been replaced instead.

As for Odysseas Vlachodimos, a lot of over the top nonsense has been said and written about him since joining Newcastle, pretty much all of it based on Forest fans who saw him play only a handful of games.

Reality is that he is a very decent experienced keeper and if Eddie Howe did play him at any time,, I wouldn’t be panicking.

Greece made it four wins in a row and that Bellingham goal was the first Vlachidomos had conceded in over six hours of international football.

Indeed, Greece and their keeper are clearly no mugs at all, their previous eight games had seen only France and Germany score against them, whilst they actually drew with France and their only defeat in normal time (not a penalty shootout) was against Germany, who scored twice in the second half and got the winner a minute from time, Greece having led at half-time.

As for England and Lee Carsley, can he still get the job permanently if winning these next three Nations League group games?

Final score:

England 1 Greece 2

England

J. Bellingham 87

Greece

V. Pavlidis 49, 90+4

England team v Greece:

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Colwill, Lewis, Rice, Bellingham, Saka (Madueke 51), Palmer, Foden (Solanke 72), Gordon (Watkins 60)

England confirmed schedule to end of 2024:

Saturday 7 September – Republic of Ireland 0 England 2

Tuesday 10 September – England 2 Finland 0

Thursday 10 October – England 1 Greece 2