Gareth Southgate buoyed by progress since Spain win with ‘control’ versus Belgium

Gareth Southgate believes England’s second-half display against Belgium was a “better all-round performance” than the 3-2 win away to Spain two years ago, as he explained a more constrained style of football may be the difference in decisive tournament games.

England dug in and stifled the team ranked No 1 in the world, coming from a goal down to win 2-1.

While it was more industrious than the sweeping win in Seville, Southgate felt it was more controlled.

“For me, Belgium was a better all-round performance in the second half [than Spain]. We controlled without the ball and in good control with the ball. Five players 23 and under, that was a performance that pleased me even more.

“Spain was tremendous counter-attacking from our forward players and we had some good solidity in defence as well. But we had a lot of close shaves in Spain whereas we didn’t against Belgium. They had a couple of dangerous counter-attacks against us but they had more attempts on target than they did. It was a game of very few chances, but that’s often the way in those big international matches.

“The last hour in Seville and we ended up with five at the back to hang on to the result. I don’t think we were perfect in Seville, it was a fantastic result, but you’re never perfect and in these big games there are different ways of winning.

“On Sunday, I was pleased in the second half with a lot of control with the ball, but also control without the ball and not just camped on our own penalty box. I can remember watching games against Spain where, a few years back under Fabio [Capello], we were camped 15, 20 yards from our own goal.

"We were able to press a bit higher up the pitch and be comfortable without the ball. There are times in those big games where it’s 50-50 possession, you’ve got to be comfortable defending as a team we are looking all the time at what are the players we have available, who can play at the highest level, with the demands physically and mentally especially, those top games bring and a classic example is now.

"We had a physically and mentally demanding game and we’ve got to go again two days later. That sort of replicates close to what you’d find in a tournament so this is a good test for us as group.”

It also raises an almost philosophical issue for Southgate. While England’s array of attacking talent would usually warrant the most proactive pressing football, there are two reasons why it might not necessarily be the best practice at the business end of international football.

The first is that managers don’t have the same time to drill players as at the club game, which has set the trend for this style of approach.

The second is that, as Southgate has articulated, recent tournament winners like France and Portugal have displayed that a more controlled approach may be the most effective at this level.

“You have also got to be more realistic in terms of the time you have got to develop in possession," Southgate added. "It is more limited. For example, you could spend hours building from your goal-kicks and if you have that time at club level you could develop patterns and everybody is on the same page.

"But if you only have five or six coaching hours on the pitch, are we better spending it on getting out of our six-yard box or are we better spending it on creating further up the pitch and keeping the ball in the middle of the pitch as well.

“These are the decisions we have to make. In terms of the intensity of the pressing, that requires work to be coordinated. But also there is a physical element to that. Every club plays differently and to press physically clubs have got to prepare their teams in the right way.

"You have got to have the right athletes to do that. Our challenge is that we have got players coming together off different physical programmes as each club has a different approach to pressing.

"So to press really high up the pitch for 90 minutes is hugely demanding and would need all the players in the squad to be able to do it. Can we do that for 90 minutes and seven games in a tournament throughout?

"That's going to be more difficult because we are not in charge of the physical condition of the players. We are when they are with us, but we can't improve that, we can't affect that.

"So there are different challenges with international football and it is absolutely right to say that even Spain when they won were not as cohesive as Barcelona and Real Madrid. They were more pragmatic with the ball which meant they did not have to defend as much, It's the time issue really.”