hello there everybody Adam clear from 442 here England are in the final of Euro 2024 just oh it's coming home in it all right okay so that's a ridiculous acation to make at this point this we going to go play Spain who' been the best team in the tournament and he would make the massive underdogs going into that but that was the best introduction I could possibly do because if you haven't seen it already Ross Kemp's already done the perfect introduction to any video OE Watkins so now look right I know a fair number you are going to be watching this with a slightly sore head God knows I'm going to have one too and you're probably thinking it's not really like a tactical narrative in that game is there's not really some big strategic point we can make about it but actually there is yes and not just there is yes but within there is yes one of the most interesting sort of tactical developments I think ever happened under Gareth Southgate reign as England manager so once again theoretically England went with this back three two Wing backs double 10 system that they used against Switzerland but just in the same way a lot of people watched that game and didn't really see that happening it was on and off but it definitely was certainly off the ball anyway what they were trying to do like if you look look at the moment right before chavy Simmons scores that opening goal you can see Bayo Saka is all the way back here this is a back five but because of the way the Netherlands set up in this game England weren't really able to implement it the same way they had against Switzerland so when they had the ball it more or less went back to the 4231 now if you have the particular Misfortune of Being in any football adjacent WhatsApp groups with me you will no doubt know over the past two days I've been banging on about how the Dutch system leaves this huge opportunity for England's Midfield you saw it quite a lot in the turkey game because they do like to press with this front three here but because of the Aging legs in their two center backs van djk and deou they don't push up as a unit the defense sits really far off them now when you have this sort of like pressing disconnect between your forwards and your Defenders the Midfield basically has a choice of whether it jumps up to support the press and leaves the Defenders really exposed or it sits back and kind of lets them get on with and in the case of the Dutch they largely sit back and allow them to get on with it leaving this huge Corridor behind the Press where if you can get the ball into your midfielders you can get turned and start making things happen and so pretty simply to stop this problem what the Dutch did was they just didn't press they didn't allow England to have that space in this part of the pitch they sat off the back four they allow them to have possession and that might not sound like that big of a deal but in all the sort of like latter stage of a tournament big games that this Gareth Southgate side has played in they've always had less possession than the opposition full stop never mind loads more but if you're wondering why in that first half especially they looked so much better than they've looked throughout the entire tournament that is because they took this possession for the first time and really used it well and the two major reasons for that they cannot go unpraised in this video are Phil foden and kobby Mayu now Mayu especially I really want to focus on here because what he was doing was harder to notice than what foden was doing theoretically this is not the game for him you want him in a match where the pressure is going to be put in this part of the pitch so he can receive it he can break that line he can dribble he can pass he can get you up the field but given that the territory had already been surrendered maybe not what you want him for but instead this was his heat map and you'll see he's doing virtually nothing nothing in England's own half a little bit here and there but he's not getting on the ball in the buildup he's not taking it off the back four what he's doing instead is he's getting into this really deep Dutch defensive shape finding the space and panicking them now granted still you've got payo Saka you've got Phil foden you've got Jude Bellingham he's probably not the player you most want on the ball in these situations but that's not what he was doing there was this brilliant moment in the first half where the ball gets turned over by the Dutch the chance is broken down and Mayu comes out of nowhere and puts in this challenge it's not a great bit of skill it's not a great pass it's not anything like that it's just brilliant reading of the game and he turns what could be a Counterattack for the Dutch into another attack for England and that pretty much became the story of his entire match like he was a oneman high pressing dual winning machine which is an individual performance by a six-year-old remember goes I honestly think that is as impressive tonight as yamal was last night but as well as him we just have to talk about Phil foden tonight because there's been so much said about him over the tournament why did England persist with him why does Southgate keep trying to get him in this side you saw tonight when it works what he's capable of doing against a really really good team and I'm not going to get into it because we've talked about it like in every single other England video this problem with him and Bellingham occupying the same Zone this sort of half a back five half a back four system that England had really made foden sing cuz on the one hand because the back five is so lopsided you're still getting width from sacka but Bellingham also loves to float out into these positions all of a sudden he kind of became more of like a second Striker behind Harry Kane and what I think genuinely might have been a moment of Awakening for him in this game was because the Dutch was sitting so deep and they were defending man for man and they had this sort of 43 shape in their own half foden must have looked at that and thought hang on I play for Man City almost every single Premier League game Phil foden is in he comes up against that exact kind of defensive block like the team desperately wanting to Counterattack against them so the attackers aren't really helping much they kind of up the other end of the pitch but also where the quality of Defenders is very good manto man with that light bulb going off over his head all of a sudden you saw Phil foden at Man City tonight his ability to float off the defense in front of the Midfield find the ball go left to right receive it drive shoot everything it was all there that goal he should have scored that's nowhere near where you want Phil foden to be to impact the game but that's where he's read the situation decided to get involved so he gets on the ball he gives it to a teammate he knows now he's been marked by this midfielder and not the Defenders so he burns past him he leaves him for dead and all of a sudden he's an option to receive it moving into the box then it's a case of just individual technical skill we not for that brilliant block on the line he' probably have scored well one of England's best goals in this tournament but it wasn't just that dropping deep to evade everyone then go on aone he's also kept finding space in this sort of favored right hand channel on the outside of the box the defense are slightly too deep he finds a gap in between the Midfield and instead of getting on the ball and doing what he's been doing in this tournament which is dallying around and trying to play a short pass he goes no justu Phil foden and he has a crack and because of how negative the Dutch were and how good Manu was and how alive an electric Phil foden finally fell England dominated that half this is their entire pass map from the first 45 minutes and I know I know you're looking at that thinking this is a complete mess Adam I can't learn anything from looking at that but just take a second you will notice that the majority of England's passes are in this part of the field and slightly higher up they're not having to have the ball a lot in their own third because of how much territory the Dutch had let them have but it also will not have escaped your attention that in the second half they struggled a lot more and this is how the past map changed across those 40 5 minutes it's not staggering it's not dramatic but you'll notice that where like the weight of them was here the weight of them is now there they got forced back and that is fundamentally because the Dutch realized that this was not working the desire to keep the lines nice and compact to restrict England had seen them concede too much territory so instead of having the forwards drop back to be near to everybody else they had everybody else be near the forwards they pushed right the way up now this is brave and it was aggressive and it could have spectacularly backfired for them but the one thing going for this idea which England really hat is that in Harry Kane they have one of the greatest goal scorers of his generation still there is no question about that but when it comes to running in behind the defense he has about as much use there as I would be and there was this little moment in the first half that I think will have encouraged Coman to make that change right kobby Mayu that man again the onean ball winning machine he forces this turnover and England have a brilliant counterattacking situation into this exact space behind the Dutch defense and I don't even need to play you this full clip right look at Harry Kane's body language instead of facing towards goal running in behind pulling a Defender away creating space for his teammates or possibly even getting into a through ball he still just wants it defeat he's got the exact same body language and positioning as the Defenders that's not digging him out that's not me saying he's the source of all of England's problems that's just how he plays he's never had the pace he's never had that particular desire that ball is never going to be on for him so you may as well push really high up to try and wrestle back control of the game and this change really did work like if you were watching that it probably felt exactly like the Switzerland game for you really good start good control of the ball momentum changes a goal nearly comes and it feels like England are losing their grip on this match but that's not what happened is it England actually went and won the game from that situation and for all Gareth Southgate has rightly and wrongly been criticized through this tournament for a perceived bias towards certain players never taking them off and sticking with them and not making substitutions that respond to the changes in the game that's exactly what he did and I've heard it all through this tournament like people in real life my friends the comment section in these very videos all over social media whatever opinion you have about Gareth Southgate this change that he made here was exactly the kind of change he gets accused of never making and it won the game and why do you bring on olle Watkins instead of Ivan Tony because OE Watkins makes runs in behind and when Cole Palmer receives this ball in the last minute of the game you know for a fact Harry Kane would want this defeat and be about here he'd get it under control he'd get turned back in this direction we'd all be screaming for Jude Bellingham to get into this Gap here so we can take the pass on and he can get a chance away and I've got no doubt on my mind whatsoever by the way that that is in that defender's mind because he's not really bothered about the option of Watkins turning him is he but the touch from Watkins is not one of control is is one of opportunity he gives himself just a little yard off to his left hand side the defender sees it he sort of motions across to try and make sure he can't run past him but that's not what happens he just takes the shot first time and for all we talk about tactics and systems and percentages and giving yourself this and giving yourself that at the end of the day that ball goes in the back of the net because it's a brilliant strike but it is also one that's almost a trademark of Ole Watkins he has scored almost that exact same goal certainly goals from that exact same position on the same foot in the same sort of circumstance time and time again for Aston Villa and that change was ultimately made because with the game being like this and they being all that space in behind and potentially being able to stretch that defense out there was a chance a player like Watkins could score a goal like that and I am not here to try and change anyone's opinion on Gareth Southgate either as a manager or on his time as the England boss people already have their minds made up and it's not going to change by watching this one YouTube video but just in the here and now in the warm Afterglow of that semi-final Victory and that ole Watkins goal you simply have to hand it to him and like it or not as a result of that One Singular substitution England somehow somehow in the final of Euro 2024 what a time to be alive now it is uh 1:30 in the morning for me here so I am going to leave it there but while you're watching this presumably on what day is it Thursday Friday or whenever please do let me know what you made of that game in the comments below where did England have more control did they finally look like the team we've wanted them to be this tournament or was there more than a huge slice of Fortune in this match I didn't even talk about the penalty which by the way might be the single most fortuitous penalty I've ever seen given but oh well yeah actually now that I me mention it that was a really really awful call wasn't it but crucially also not my problem you can get me on any single social media you wish go on I dare you at Adam cley cley the 442 socials in the corner of the video I'm still laughing because I'm still absolutely a hoop uh over that masch the magazine I haven't got it here it's in stores now it's always in stores you should always be buying it all the time uh that's my opinion please God subscribe to us here on 442 we're having so much fun with zos content and we're only going to keep doing all this fun stuff with the transfer window and the new Premier League season and and uh everything like that so that little button is your friend but so am I and I am now going to go uh to bed and I'll wake up in the morning and think I've dreamt all of that bye