Lee Carsley to ditch England experiment after Greece defeat
Published 11/10/2024 at 22:51 GMT+1
Interim England boss Lee Carsley has admitted he will ditch the Three Lions's experimental line-up against Finland on Sunday. It comes after his side were dealt a dismal and deserved 2-1 defeat to Greece at Wembley on Thursday evening. Despite the confused performance, Carsley insisted, however, that he would not compromise on his attacking principles.
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Interim England manager Lee Carsley admitted he is likely to ditch The Three Lions’ experimental formation when they take on Finland on Sunday.
Carsley’s England enjoyed an encouraging start to their Nations League campaign with victories over Republic of Ireland and Finland in September, only to be dismantled by Greece at Wembley on Thursday evening.
With skipper Harry Kane out injured, the England boss opted to experiment by fielding five attacking players and no out-and-out striker against Greece. What followed was a confused performance that paved the way for Ivan Jovanovic’s side to claim a deserved 2-1 victory.
“We probably won’t try that again on Sunday,” Carsley said in a press conference. “I have coached enough to know we need to do something different. Had Harry been fit, I might have gone down another route.”
Nevertheless, Carsley insisted “nothing changes” in terms of an attacking approach.
The 50-year-old said: “The way I want my teams to play, I want us to attack and when we had the players we have available, I wanted to try something different.
“Hindsight is perfect because it never happened. It wouldn’t stop me trying something different in the future because I have done okay being like this.
“I had 17, 18, 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on the counterattack. That is definitely not how I want to coach. Nothing changes in that respect.
“I have had enough setbacks in football to know you are never too far away and I have got to lead by example and I will.
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“My belief in this team hasn’t changed, we need to be better and I include myself in that definitely.
"We tried something tonight, it didn’t come off, it could have gone the other way and we are talking about ‘we’ve found another way of playing’.
“I’m really wary about ruling something out so quickly when we have literally done it for an hour. If any fingers get pointed, they’re at me, I wanted to try something, it didn’t come off but we go again.”
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