Endrick gives England and Gareth Southgate another issue to solve before Euro 2024
England 0-1 Brazil: What did we learn as the Three Lions lost their unbeaten Wembley run? The problem for Gareth Southgate is whatever it was, it wasn’t enough
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Your support makes all the difference.After the controversy about the new England shirt, the concerns about the players wearing it. After the needless culture wars, the more pertinent footballing decisions that beckon for Gareth Southgate. A year that could end 58 of hurt for England began with a first defeat since the 2022 World Cup quarter-final and a performance to ward off suggestions they should be favourites for Euro 2024.
A glamour game did not live up to its billing, but the excitement was provided by a weakened Selecao team. On a night when many a young England player hoped to make an indelible mark, the rookie to etch his name into history was instead Endrick, the 17-year-old who became the youngest scorer in a senior international at Wembley. For their rather more experienced manager, Dorival Junior, a 26th and most prestigious job brought an ideal start.
But England’s display was less “jogo bonito” than “jogo mediocre”. The players who needed to play well didn’t, or not to the extent of resolving Southgate’s selection dilemmas for the summer. Paper aeroplanes were being flung in the crowd, but too few players booked their place on the flight to Germany.
Perhaps the biggest cheer greeted Kobbie Mainoo when he came on for his debut; the injured Jordan Henderson may reflect that he would be unlikely to be afforded such a reception if he came on. But if injuries afforded an opportunity to many another, too few grasped it. Ben Chilwell, Conor Gallagher, Anthony Gordon and Ollie Watkins started. Ezri Konsa played the majority of the game. None can say with any confidence he has booked his spot at the Euros. Chilwell, as the only specialist left-back other than the sidelined Luke Shaw, always occupied a unique position in Southgate’s plans, but he was no more than reasonable.
Watkins scarcely preyed on the inexperience of Brazil’s two debutant centre-backs; he came closest when he stabbed a shot over. Gordon had a curling effort parried by Bento and a half-volley blocked by the newcomer of a goalkeeper after a well-worked free-kick by Declan Rice. Yet he lacked the irrepressibility he often possesses in a Newcastle shirt. His England debut was respectable but by no means remarkable. Gallagher, meanwhile, scarcely suggested he could complete a triangle by complementing Jude Bellingham and Rice.
Konsa, whose international bow came at full-back when Kyle Walker limped off, struggled to keep up with Vinicius. He is not alone in that and the fixture may have rendered his a thankless task. But even with Ben White out of the reckoning, he may only be fifth-choice right-back.
Yet when the goal came, it reflected worst on the substitute Lewis Dunk, who gave the ball away. Vinicius scurried clear, Jordan Pickford parried his shot and Endrick, already Brazil’s youngest player for 57 years, scored the rebound.
England should not argue the scoreline was an injustice. They had three major let-offs before the break; Brazil, shorn of some of their stardust and normal starters, with five debutants starting and a trio of World Cup qualifying defeats in autumn, nevertheless showed more incision.
Vinicius sprang the offside trap to meet Lucas Paqueta’s pass and catch Pickford in no-man’s land. The paradox was that, for such a speedy player and one who had escaped from Walker, his shot lacked the pace required, allowing the stand-in England captain to retreat and clear off the line. He did so in semi-comical fashion, thrashing a clearance into the back of the unwitting Maguire’s head.
Some 23 minutes later, Paqueta fired a shot against the post. His was a curiosity of a performance, with enviable class in possession but, had it been a competitive game, he would probably have been dismissed before the break for fouls on John Stones and Bellingham.
If Brazil sometimes resorted to the illegal to stop Bellingham, they could have led after a moment of English incompetence. With a clumsy touch, Maguire gifted Raphinha an opportunity but he angled a shot just wide. It was not a night for Maguire to win over his doubters. Alongside him, Stones looked altogether slicker.
Ahead of them, however, England looked disjointed. If it was understandable they lacked cohesion and chemistry, with Walker’s exit exacerbating the longest injury list of Southgate’s tenure, an experimental side was granted chances, if only to secure places on the bench in Germany.
Instead, arguably England’s best players – without producing particularly memorable performances – were the certainties: Stones, Rice and Bellingham. Most of the replacements, too, had a point to prove and did not. Jarrod Bowen was at least bright in his cameo while the rather more experienced Marcus Rashford missed a couple of opportunities to equalise. Endrick perhaps ought to have doubled the lead with an injury-time break, but Pickford saved.
It mattered not for Brazil, who won anyway. But England’s ineffectiveness may count against some of these players when Southgate hands out the last remaining spots in his summer squad.
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