England evolve and embrace a new strength at World Cup

Daniel Sturridge got one. So did Wayne Rooney. And that, it transpired, was the sum total of England’s goals in the 2014 World Cup. They had only mustered one more in 2010, Steven Gerrard, Jermain Defoe and Matt Upson the scorers.

So when Marcus Rashford brought up a century of World Cup goals for England, it underlined how few arrived in the years immediately before Gareth Southgate’s appointment. Some 23, almost a quarter, have come for a manager often deemed conservative in his style of play. If that is aided by the generosity of Panama and Iran, conceding six apiece in group games separated by four years, a second-half trio against Wales means England have only ever scored more goals in two World Cups than their nine now: 2018 and 1966. They are the top scorers in 2022. Not bad for a team being held back by a supposedly puritanical manager.

If the difference with the Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson years lies first and foremost in the quantity of goals, the new element is the identity of the scorers. It is no secret England have been over-reliant on Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling in Southgate’s reign, particularly in tournament football when their next likeliest finishers seemed to be Harry Maguire and John Stones.

Not now. Rashford remained England’s third highest scorer of the Southgate era during 15 months of international exile. Now he is the joint top scorer in the World Cup, alongside Kylian Mbappe, Cody Gakpo and Enner Valencia. It is a stunning turnaround. “He has been impressive since he came back to us,” Southgate said. “We are seeing a completely different version of him to in the Euros.”

Yet it is not just Rashford. Not when Phil Foden joined him on the scoresheet against Wales, their quickfire double indicating how England can switch from drab to devastating. Or when Bukayo Saka’s tournament began with a brace and Jude Bellingham, Sterling and Jack Grealish also scored against Iran. It leaves a notable omission: Harry Kane, Golden Boot winner in 2018, is goalless now. But he has three assists, the delightful low cross for Foden against Wales perhaps the best of them, and no one has more. England are no one-man team but the man who contributed the majority of their goals in Russia has been the supplier this time.

“You need goals from all areas. It is a problem for opposition teams if the threat is coming from other areas of the pitch and we have talked about that a lot,” Southgate said. “Across the three games pretty much all of our forward line have got off the mark, either with goals or assists. It is competition for places and people have to deliver.”

That England have six scorers, none of them Kane, renders his job tougher. Foden had been the latest cause celebre for the knee-jerk critics and the army of armchair managers who assume they know best. The player England always need, apparently, is the one who is not in the starting 11. It was first Grealish and then Jadon Sancho in Euro 2020, even though Saka ended up making a more articulate case for selection.

That Rashford and Foden came into the side against Wales, both scored and swapped flanks at half-time illustrated two elements of the equation. England have a host of wingers and attacking midfielders with contrasting, compelling attributes, most of them versatile enough to occupy multiple positions. If they don’t win in emphatic fashion, Southgate can struggle to please anyone, let alone everyone. The dull draw against the United States brought a backlash, even though England had scored six times in the previous game. If Wales have too few options, Southgate can seem to have too many.

“You want those decisions and we need strength in depth,” he said. England have it, with Mason Mount joining Saka, Sterling, Rashford, Bellingham, Foden and Grealish among potential starters. As Bellingham put it: “We’ve got loads of depth in attacking areas, and whoever comes in seems to make an impact.” For Rashford, who began on the left and scored from the right, and Foden, who made the opposing move, it came with goals from their natural flanks. Southgate’s usual preference is for inverted wingers: it suits Kane, too, because when he drops off to act as a false nine, players with the speed of Sterling and Rashford can run beyond him in the channels.

And Sterling represents a reason why Rashford’s Golden Boot challenge may fizzle out. The loyalist in Southgate is likely to restore the starters he rested against Wales, in Saka and Sterling. But it will be an indication of the enviable resources at Southgate’s disposal. Between Gary Lineker and David Platt in 1990 and Kane 28 years later, no England player scored three goals in a World Cup. Now one already has and he may not even rank in their first-choice team.