Gareth Southgate needs to cure England’s fear of failure by building the team around Kobbie Mainoo
KOBBIE MAINOO has shown he is the player that England need to build their midfield — and their team — around.
That’s what I felt as it looked like we were slipping to defeat.
The best of England vs Slovakia
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I know he was not on the pitch when our goals went in.
But until that unbelievable comeback, Mainoo was our best player.
He has a fearlessness and an instinct to do the right things at the right times that seemed to be lacking for so much of the game.
Mainoo alongside Declan Rice gives England better structure. In theory, at least, because for so long it didn’t look like that.
You can have any structure you like but if a team, individually and collectively, lacks confidence, you cannot use that structure effectively.
A fear can creep in. A fear of failing. A fear of losing the ball.
It is partly because of his age that Mainoo does not have that, or appears not to have it.
This was his first start in a major tournament. He does not know what it is like to have a bad one.
But it is also because of how he has been coached and you can see those hours of work, combined with his talent, in how he plays.
If Mainoo receives the ball under pressure, he can pop it off with one touch.
If there is time to take a second, then he will. He is happy to give, to receive, to play the one-two. To hold, or to make forward runs.
He just seems to make the right choices most of the time.
It took Mainoo a while to grow into the first half. His early yellow card won’t have helped but he coped with that well, too.
You could see his confidence grow and it was great to see him taking responsibility at the end of a poor first half for England.
He ran with the ball, tried to make something happen and had one of our few shots of the half.
Mainoo is happy to give and receive the ball but England weren’t being brave enough. It is a theme of the tournament so far and brings us back to the lack of confidence.
Mainoo impact
When you are feeling that, it is easy to play the safe ball rather than risk giving it away.
But sometimes it is OK to lose the ball because Slovakia or other teams think they have possession and open up a bit.
That’s when counterpressing comes in, you win the ball back quickly and exploit the spaces.
We have the profile of players to do it. Rice and Mainoo are really good at that side of the game.
But our pressing was not working properly again.
In the first half especially, we were pressing up front but our backline was sitting too deep.
Need to control games
You have to keep the distances between your players smaller. It left a huge amount of space for Rice and Mainoo to cover and Slovakia exploited that really well.
Slovakia also defended brillliantly until stoppage-time and England just didn’t look like scoring.
We had lots of set-pieces but without Harry Maguire, we didn’t look a threat.
Jude Belligham’s equaliser, even though it was brilliant, came from a desperate last-gasp long throw.
If we want to win this tournament, starting with the quarter-final against Switzerland, we will need to control games better.
How Mainoo helps Rice
Mainoo has the qualities to give us that — provided those around him can match his bravery and composure.
He can be a great foil for Rice and allow him to play the more attacking role he does for Arsenal.
In a team where Harry Kane wants to drop into midfield, and Phil Foden wants to cut inside, he offers the ability to pick a pass, or to run in behind himself.
Mainoo is the kind of midfielder England have been crying out for for a long time.
He can be the glue that holds together this team for the rest of the tournament and well into the future.
