GARETH SOUTHGATE began studying France on the team bus away from the Al Bayt Stadium after the last-16 win over Senegal on Sunday, but England’s preparations for Saturday’s quarter-final clash had, in truth, got underway two years earlier.
England did not arrive back at their base until 3am, but shortly after 9am they were sitting through a presentation on the reigning world champions by Tim Dittmer.
The FA’s head of coaching (right) has been tracking France in granular detail for the past two years, preparing for this very moment, and he knows how Didier Deschamps thinks as well as anyone outside the
French camp. One of the topics which came up was, obviously, Kylian Mbappe and how to contain one of just two players in Qatar who England believe require “special attention”, along with Lionel Messi.
One of the plans being discussed is how to push Mbappe onto the back foot and exploit his weakness at defending, rather than allow him to play to his obvious strengths, and assistant manager Steve Holland has reminded Southgate of advice from his old mentor at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese once told Holland that when he was in charge of Real Madrid, he initially tried to contain Barcelona’s rampaging right-back Dani Alves by playing a defensive left-back — a “soldier” — but soon realised the best approach was to station Cristiano Ronaldo on the left and force Alves to defend.
This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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