That’s the question Gareth Southgate admits he kept turning over in his mind. Who will play at Euro alongside Declan Rice in his England midfield? “In the last few months, I’ve been thinking, “Declan with whom?”,” the Manager said two weeks ago. “And:”who, if without Declan?’”
Let’s move on to the second part of this, because this is simply unthinkable. After the disgrace of Calvin Phillips and Jordan Henderson, Southgate has no other number 6 available. And this does not take into account the quality of Rice’s best Position as N° 8.
This is the first part of the equation to be smacken with a new intensity after England’s 3-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday in St.James’ Park. If the composition of the midfield is the endless mystery, then perhaps Trent Alexander-Arnold is the main reason for this.
Southgate knows that he has a unique Talent in the Liverpool player that he would like to use, and there was a moment at the end of the season when he seemed to have found clarity. Southgate had already tried Alexander-Arnold on the right side of a midfield trio in a 4-3-3 system-against Andorra in September at Wembley – and it didn’t work.
But then, in the qualifying matches against Malta away and North Macedonia at home, it worked. It was wonderful to see Alexander-Arnold strut his stuff as N°8 on the right, showing the full range of his passing game, albeit against lower-ranked opponents. His future in England seemed fixed and that didn’t include him playing at right-back.
Things have changed. The change was subtle but significant and was motivated by the unstoppable Rise of Jude Bellingham during his first season at Real Madrid. Southgate realized at the starting of this Season – during the friendly match against Scotland at Hampden Park in September, to be exact – that he had to have Bellingham as high up on the pitch as possible, in a n°10 role, and that’s how the transition from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 began.
Consider Southgate’s words after the Wembley friendly against Australia in October, when he used Alexander-Arnold as a right-back, but asked him to stand up in midfield. After an hour, Southgate moved him to the right side of midfield two in the 4-2-3-1 and he watched him come to the right to look for space, away from a cluttered central area.
“I think he’s an 8,” Southgate said. “Although we didn’t play [against Australia] with an 8, that’s why we brought him to the back, that’s an Option. He has very different qualities from all of our midfielders, and we want to look at that as best we can.”
It’s an Option that Southgate hasn’t really explored and certainly not against Top-level Opposition. partly by the displacement of the formation, partly by the circumstances. Alexander-Arnold was unavailable for the September matches and especially for the March matches against Brazil and Belgium. Conor Gallagher was Rice’s partner in the first match; Kobbie Mainoo was by his side in the second.