Gareth Southgate has given himself a problem with England selection dilemma for the ages – The Warm-Up

MONDAY’S BIG STORIES

Three Lions Rampant

You could feel it bubbling up. As the half-hour mark ticked past against Senegal, England were looking very, well, England. Slow. Stodgy. A little bit frayed around the edges, a little bit squidgy in the middle. The takes weren’t quite cooked yet, but they were warming up nicely.

And then they struck. Kane, Bellingham, Henderson: game broken open. Perhaps what looked like stodginess should be better understood as patience. England’s goal came just a few minutes after Jordan Pickford made a great save to deny Boulaye Dia, as England emerged from a wobbly period. Kane dropped deep, the midfield rumbled past him; spaces appeared, and England slammed up through the gears and claimed them.

And England have a functioning midfield now! Tournaments are their own little world, and operate according to their own strange internal rules. We can’t recall anybody suggesting, pre-tournament, that Jordan Henderson would be key to balancing Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice, yet Southgate spotted it and went for it and here we are. An England midfield surging forward in dangerous combination. We thought that was the stuff of myth.

And Bellingham is playing so well that not even the immediate interjection of the Premier League’s transfer market – he’s hugging Henderson! he’s coming to Liverpool! – can take the edge off. “I don’t want to big him up because he’s still young,” said grizzled old veteran Phil Foden, before adding, moments later, “I’m sure he’s going to be the best midfielder in the world”. A rather endearing demonstration of just how impossible it is to be sensible when a talent like this is unfolding before the world. And speaking of ludicrous talents…

He’s Just Better Than Everybody Else

Given their meek progress through the group stage, we weren’t expecting too much from Poland in the knockouts. Hands up, we were wrong. Stung by the criticism that has come their way, or perhaps energised by the prospect of some proper knock-out football, Poland set about making defending champions France very uncomfortable. Amazing what trying to score a goal can do for a side.

The really galling thing for the Polish defence will be that they didn’t do much wrong for either goal. A little bit of an overstretch as they chased an equaliser; half a yard of space here, a quarter of a yard there. There’s a defender out and blocking the first effort, but it doesn’t matter because he’s slapped the ball back inside the near post quicker than makes any sense. And Wojciech Szczesny gets a hand to the second, but that doesn’t matter either because he’s hit it so well.

Even Mbappe’s acts of generosity come with an edge of terror. His through-ball for the first goal was a delicate gift, eagerly accepted by Olivier Giroud, who in the process became France’s men’s record goalscorer. And then Mbappe set about reeling him in. Giroud, who has 52 international goals, didn’t make his France debut until the age of 24. Mbappe is a year younger and already has 33. He’s not going to break that record, he’s going to atomise it.

But while Mbappe is brilliant; France are weird. Perhaps the former means that the latter is basically acceptable: it’s fine to be playing this strange broken system, for Antoine Griezmann to be scrapping around in midfield because all the rest of the side have to do is get it out to the left. Or perhaps what we’re seeing here is both the consequence of, and the solution to, France’s clutch of injuries. In that broad space between attack and goalkeeper, Didier Deschamps is improvising furiously. But just get it out to the left…

Stick Or Twist

All of which means that Gareth Southgate has a very interesting problem. There are no good answers to Mbappe, but perhaps the best on paper would be a back five, with Kyle Walker on the right side of the central three and probably Kieran Trippier outside him. There’s more to Mbappe than his pace in behind, but if you can’t deal with that it will destroy you.

But playing an extra defender would mean dropping one of Rice or Kane, both absolute undroppables, or one of Bellingham, Henderson, Saka or Foden, who are all playing brilliantly. It would also mean disrupting this well-balanced and apparently functional 4-3-3 that has just seen England through to the quarters in some style. To be terribly reductive about it all, is Southgate going to be proactive or reactive? Is he going to send his best side out and damn the consequences, or is he going to take special measures to deal with the best player in the tournament?

On his left shoulder, a tiny Southgate with devil horns and a very natty waistcoat, urging him to send forth his armies and break this imbalanced France apart. On his right, a meek Southgate with a paper bag over his head, quietly muttering “Mbappe, Mbappe, Mbappe, Mbappe…”

The actual Southgate that we haven’t made up for comedy purposes said, after the game, “It couldn’t be more exciting. France are the biggest test we could face. World champions, incredible depth of players and very difficult to score goals. A fantastic challenge.” Which is to say, he’s giving us no clues. But you know a match is going to be a big one when even the team sheets promise excitement.

IN OTHER NEWS

The news coming out of Brazil regarding Pele is concerning, and made all the more so by the fact that so much of it turns out not to be news at all. But it has provided us all with a chance to go back into the archives, and look at the trousers on this goalkeeper.

RETRO CORNER

England vs. France, then. Things we’ll be seeing a fair bit of over the next few days: Samir Nasri sneaking one in at the near post against Joe Hart. A Joleon Lescott header, a Frank Lampard header. One of David Beckham’s more disappointing penalties. And, of course, David James.

But for the last time the two teams met in a World Cup – as opposed to their semi-regular Euros encounters – we have to rewind all the way to 1982, to the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao, and to the opening game of Group 4. Look at the sun sweating out of the television. Bryan Robson scored after 27 seconds, then again after the hour, as England rattled their way to a 3-1 battering. Of all the plaudits thrown Jude Bellingham’s way over the last few weeks, comparisons with Robson are perhaps the most thrilling. So if he scores in the first minute, you’ll know what’s up.

HAT TIP

“Last Tuesday, French newspaper L’Equipe published details of a huge row between De Bruyne and Vertonghen, which required Lukaku to break it up. Several sources have suggested the disagreement was a little less explosive than portrayed, but it is certainly true that there was at least a very frank exchange between the two players and that Lukaku did indeed have to step in. There was also a terse discussion between Vertonghen and [Eden] Hazard, although Hazard is said to have managed to appease the defender.”

For the Warm-Up’s money, the boldest decision was to go into the tournament with a captain that basically wasn’t a footballer anymore, and hadn’t been for some time. Eden Hazard started the first two games and contributed the square root of nothing much, as a row swirled around his privileged position in the team.

“One source suggests the team was no longer capable of playing a high-pressing style. De Bruyne could do it, but Hazard and Lukaku lacked the physicality to do so. Several sources close to the dressing room criticised Martinez for showing too much loyalty to Hazard. The captain made little impact in the first two games and when he was dropped to the bench for the must-win game against Croatia, the coach said it was to protect him from the risk of injury.”

Of course, one advantage of a proper tournament flame-out is that whoever comes in next has licence to clean house. Whoever replaces Martínez will owe him thanks. ‘Nice one, Bobby. This place is a total mess. Wonderful.’

COMING UP

We’re back in the top half of the bracket today, as Japan look for another shock against Croatia – a tip for the Croats: don’t score the opening goal. It only makes them angry. Then after that we’ve got Brazil against South Korea.

Have a lovely day. Your super World Cup Warm-Up will be back tomorrow.