2020: England needs Rebuilding

Background

The year is 2020 and on my save I'm just been appointed England manager. Whilst I am also a manager at club level too, this thread will focus purely on my international management of England, as I try to take them to WC2022 and glory.

The reason for making this thread comes largely down to the fact that in my save, England's core group of players are all coming to the end of their careers, and as the new manager it's my job to blend old with new & slowly ease out the aging, whilst still qualifying for WC2022.

England's success since 2012 has been prretty good. They won Euro 2012, came third in the 2013 Confederations Cup & third at the most recent World Cup, in 2018. They also made the semi finals of Euro 2020, losing to the old-enemy, Germany. However that generation has now come to a close, players who were at their peak are now what I would consider at the upper limit of their age at which I can consider them. The likes of Ryan Shawcross, Craig Dawson, Kyle Walker, Chris Smalling, Tom Cleverley, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott, all regulars in England sides of the past 5 years, are all over the age of 30. It was that generation's last chance at silverware, but they succumbed and now it's time to bring in a new era.

The Future

However, there is not a huge amount of talent coming through the ranks to replace those listed above (and others). Whilst there are a few good younger players, and the odd gem, on the whole England are not on the same level as other nations and, similar to real life at the moment, are going to have to adjust to do well. Rather than try to match sides at their own game, I like to keep it tight, make my side very difficult to break down and then use pace to break on the counter. We've got the players to do this, with the likes of Jack Rodwell to break up opponent moves & the pace of Raheem Sterling & Alex Chamberlain to launch counter attacks.

My immediate task is to ensure qualification for the World Cup. I have been placed in a Group alongside Belarus, Wales, Montenegro, Georgia & Faroe Islands, a group I should progress from. Wales will likely provide the toughest test, they are ranked 15th in the world and have some quality players, both old in the form of Bale, Ramsey & younger regens too.

I hope to take a "Roy Hodgson-esque" approach to remoulding the side into one that could hopefully "do a Greece" at the major tournament, should we get there. Of course the FA is expecting me to qualify for the WC to keep my job, so that's my first task.

Unfortunately I don't have any friendlies to ease me in, and my first match is at home to Montenegro on September 5th. I can't bring in all my squad changes at once, this needs to be a slow evolution over the next two years which hopefully will see me arrive at WC2022 in Qatar with a fresh, young squad ready to pull some surprises. Or, it could see me sacked

This is also my first career thread here on SI, so any feedback is appreciated

As I had barely anytime to prepare for the first two games, I decided to stick with the squad I had inherited from the departing Stuart Pearce as much as I could, with injuries my only edits. Unfortunately we had a fair few, meaning I called on the inexperienced Gary Parker to make his first start. I've big hopes for Gary as an England player & hope he can become a regular. Players like Ryan Shawcross & Wayne Rooney are not in my long term plans but due to injuries to potential replacements, they held onto their place for the first squad.

On paper, both these games looked more than winnable and I wanted to get my career off to a good start in front of an eager Wembley crowd.

As I've progressed from this point on my save, I forgot to write down my entire 23 man squad, so for the first few games I will just show you the first XI. Apologies for this, after the first 4 games I have got all my squads written down so can go into more detail.

Euro 2021?

Euro 2021?

Ah, good old typo's! Should have been Euro 2012. Fixed, Thanks

With a month break until our next games against Faroe Islands & Belarus, I was finally able to start looking at the squad & options available, to pick out some key players, both experienced & young.

At the back, Joe Hart would be number 1 in the nets. He may be 33 but for a keeper that's not too old. He's been the number one for a number of years with 131 caps to his name, and he will remain the number one for the next couple of years. In his absence, Alex Smithies is ample back-up.

Defence is probably an area we're pretty weak in, especially in the middle. Unfortunately Phil Jones was ruled out for 4-5 months with ligament issues which is a shame, the 28 year old was central to my plans. For now experienced Craig Dawson is probably best bet for one of the two slots. In terms of looking to the future, Everton's Eddie Bradley and Millwall's Andrew Thompson probably offer the best options, but none are going to set the world alight. I would really love an English CB to spring up soon as I have serious concerns about this position going forward.

On the flanks, I'd probably go with the experienced Jordan Spence on the right, but look at one of England's top prospects on the left, with Daniel Smith a huge up & coming star. The likes of Chris Smalling & Kyle Walker in my opinion are well beyond their best and wont have a role to play under my reign.

In the midfield, it's clear the midfield should be built around 29 year old Jack Rodwell and 28 year old Jack Wilshere. The two Jacks should be able to combine to make a pretty mean looking midfield. Players like Gary Parker and Eric Anderson offer us alternative, younger options.

On the wings I'm hoping to go with raw pace & energy, in the form of Alex Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling. I'm also following young Ashley Gardner with interest as I think he could turn out a very good player.

Up top we don't have a huge array of options, so I may consider playing just one up there. Tom Maskell has impressed recently for Portsmouth & at 24 has a number of years ahead of him. 22 year old George Martin has also caught my eye abroad, scoring plenty for Palermo. I must also consider Connor Wickham, who I think is a good choice if we're only going to play one up front. The career of Wayne Rooney is now over, the 35 year old has over 170 caps, an amazing record, but has now peaked and he failed to impress me in the first two games. I must also keep an eye on Ahmet Fettahoglu, who got that late winner in Wales.

Overall we seem to have a solid squad with some potential young talent too, but there are gaps. The entire side should be constructed around Rodwell & Wilshere, who will both play key roles in WC22 qualification, although in midfield if either or both of those players pick up injuries, we'll struggle. I also hope we can bring Phil Jones back in following his injury to complete a pretty decent spine of the side.

In terms of tactics, I'm a fan of the 4-1-3-2 we employed against Montenegro & Wales but it doesn't let us use the wingers enough for me. Seeing as we're relatively weak at CB I am considering a 4-2-1-3 / 4-3-3 of sorts:

Or potentially just playing a flat 4-4-2 too.

I've also arranged some friendlies. In November we travel to Austria & Holland. In 2021, our first game is a friendly in Slovakia and then following some crucial WC qualification matches, we face what is sure to be a feisty friendly in Berlin against Germany.

Following on from the first two games I had a better idea of some of the younger players I wanted to bring into the squad.

As I've progressed from this point on my save, I forgot to write down my entire 23 man squad, so I will just show you the first XI. Apologies for this, from this point onwards I have written down all squads so I'll be able to show you in more detail the team I'm picking..

With the squad I'd picked I decided to experiement with a 4-2-3-1 formation to try & make use of the wide men.

| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Wales         |       | 4     | 3     | 0     | 1     | 10    | 5     | +5    | 9     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | England       |       | 4     | 2     | 2     | 0     | 7     | 2     | +5    | 8     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Belarus       |       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 5     | 4     | +1    | 7     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Georgia       |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 6     | 7     | -1    | 6     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Montenegro    |       | 4     | 0     | 2     | 2     | 4     | 6     | -2    | 2     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Faroe Islands |       | 4     | 0     | 1     | 3     | 2     | 10    | -8    | 1     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

Interesting thread idea, well presented too! Seems like you're solid enough, but lack a bit of cohesiveness in the final third to really break teams down.