I’ve listened to all the talk of England’s bravery after beating Mexico, and I understand why.
They played the majority of the second half with 10 men in what was the lion’s den. They stuck together. They found a way. That takes character and it will only strengthen the belief within the squad. Fans are right to be proud of what they saw.
But I will also say this – I think we mistake what bravery in football actually is. We are celebrating players throwing themselves in front of shots as if they’ve gone to war. Come on, a football is a bag of air. If I walked into my local pub and asked 11 blokes if they’d throw their body in front of a ball for England, they’d all do it.
It felt like all we needed at the Azteca was for one of our players to have a ball smashed in their face and a bit of claret on the white jersey and they’d be worshipped forever. That’s a typical English attitude and it goes back generations. It’s nonsense and we’re fooling ourselves. We’re better than that. We need to be better than that. I’m not taking anything away from what those players did, it was brilliant within the context of that situation. But putting your body on the line is part of the job.
Real bravery is wanting the ball when 80,000 people are willing you to make a mistake. It’s showing for possession when everyone else is hiding. It’s taking the ball off your mate when he’s in trouble, knowing that if you lose it you’ll be the one criticised. That’s football bravery and that’s what England need more of, if they’re going to win this World Cup.
England found a way to beat Mexico in an incredible game – but it wasn’t real ‘bravery’
England’s defensive effort took character and will only strengthen the belief within the squad
When I watched the first half, I didn’t see that. I thought we struggled badly with the ball. We gave away possession far too easily, we couldn’t string passes together consistently and we invited far too much pressure. Jordan Pickford was one of our best players and that normally tells you something.
I was actually relieved to hear Thomas Tuchel say afterwards that there was plenty to improve on, because that’s exactly how I saw it. I thought I was going mad listening to the reaction after the game. I was seeing journalists and former players describe it as England’s greatest performance. It wasn’t. I’d happily call it one of England’s greatest nights, but there’s a huge difference. For me, that’s confusing drama with quality.
The performance wasn’t without quality, of course. Jude Bellingham scored two very good goals and his team-mates played a part in those. There were some strong individual displays and moments. But as a team, they made it harder for themselves than it needed to be. They didn’t have control.
Mexico are decent, but someone like Raul Jimenez wouldn’t get close to our squad. Yet he and others – most of them play in the Mexican league – caused us real problems every time they went forward in the first half. We didn’t stop crosses well enough and didn’t defend them well enough when they did arrive. Jimenez was getting on the end of everything. The defending did get a lot better in the second half.
But then there was Jarell Quansah’s red card. That wasn’t bad luck, it was our own mistake. Then there was the penalty against Harry Kane. A little bit soft, maybe, but he would have wanted the same decision if it happened at the other end. That is why, come the end, we had to rely on what everyone is lauding as bravery.
I’d be concerned if people suddenly see this as the blueprint. What I find encouraging is that I don’t think Tuchel does. Everything I’ve heard from him suggests he wants a team that presses together, controls possession and has the courage to keep playing football under pressure. We haven’t seen enough of that yet.
There have been too many moments when England have fallen into old habits. We score, we drop deeper. We come under pressure, we surrender possession. We stop trusting ourselves. We get a red card. We give away a penalty. That’s naive, it’s silly, but we’ve seen it before. Think back to the Euro 2020 final against Italy. England scored early and gradually retreated. They certainly weren’t brave that night.
Michael Owen warns: Against France, Spain or Argentina, England risk a backside kicking
The best international teams have always understood what bravery is. Take Spain of the past 20 years or so. If you’ve got the ball in their team, you’ve got three or four options every time. When we played Brazil in 2002 World Cup quarter-final, they went down to 10 men when they were 2-1 up and we couldn’t get near them. We didn’t even create a chance. Brazil didn’t play safe, they played brave and kept the ball. I loved Tuchel’s quote this week when he said: ‘We have to worship the ball more’. He knows.
Because if against France, Spain or Argentina, England play like they did versus Mexico, we’ll get our backsides kicked. You cannot spend long spells without the ball or keep on being sloppy with it against teams of that quality. They’ll punish you more than Mexico, DR Congo or Panama ever will.
The positive is that this group has something previous England squads sometimes lacked – genuine belief born from adversity. Winning ugly has its place in tournament football. Every champion usually survives at least one night where everything seems to go against them. England have had theirs. Now the challenge changes.
Saturday’s quarter-final against Norway isn’t about proving they can suffer, it’s about proving they can play. If England can combine the resilience they showed against Mexico with the composure and courage Tuchel is trying to build, then they have every chance of going all the way.
The ultimate greatest night, in New Jersey a week on Sunday, will only happen if England are football brave. They have the players, so let’s see it.
