Raheem Sterling magnificent as Gareth Southgate shows England's future can be bright

Tony Evans16 November 2016

In the waning moments of England’s friendly against Spain last night, Wembley began to empty. People headed for the exits content that their team were 2-0 up with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Imagine the shock when they reached home and found that the game ended in a 2-2 draw? Well, less shock than resignation. Same old England…

Gareth Southgate? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Conceding two goals in the final seven minutes seemed to confirm what many suspected. The Three Lions are a lost cause.

Yet something was stirring at Wembley. Southgate, in his final game as interim manager, contrived to get his team to play to their strengths. The performance hinted at huge potential within this young squad. Southgate was able to do what Roy Hodgson never achieved: exploit the pace that England have in abundance.

They approached an admittedly experimental Spain side in the most fearless manner. The aim was to run at the Spanish, or run past them. Raheem Sterling will probably never earn the love of supporters but opposition defenders dislike him even more vehemently than his critics. The Manchester City winger disturbs the shape of back fours. His dribbling draws in opponents and creates space for team-mates.

Adam Lallana has the intelligence to use the vacant areas to maximum effect. Until his early substitution he was magnificent, curling in the tempting pass that led to Jamie Vardy winning the penalty that gave England the lead.

Lallana took the spot-kick with swaggering confidence. Spain could not match the home side’s quickness. Jesse Lingard and Vardy unnerved the defence while Danny Rose and Nathanial Clyne surged forward from full-back.

England vs Spain: In Pictures

1/23

Even more impressive than England’s attacking speed was their snap to loose balls in midfield. While they were second best technically it did not matter.

After Vardy doubled the lead, the match became disjointed and the crowd seemed to lose track of what was happening. Spain scored twice and Southgate raged at the fourth official for allowing six added minutes. He should not worry. His time is just beginning, not running out. If England can build on the strengths they showed last night the future under Southgate looks bright.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in