COLOGNE, GERMANY – JUNE 25: Bukayo Saka of England applauds the fans after the UEFA EURO 2024 group match … (+)
As English football pundits ponder what could be the solution to the national team’s total imbalance, former Arsenal legend Ian Wright has stumbled upon a potential solution.
Manager Gareth Southgate’s lack of options at left-back could be solved by moving Bukayo Saka there.
“As great as Saka has done for England in terms of what he creates, his goals and his assists, he is a natural player on the left,” Wright explained.
“He started playing for England as a youth player, then at Arsenal as a left-back. If it can give you balance and allow you to have Cole Palmer on the team, it’s something you should at least consider. »
“Yes, Kyle Walker can play there (at left-back), it’s the same situation where the player comes inside, there’s no one circulating. He’s a natural left footer Saka, we could activate the whole left side.
Although the suggestion was not universally welcomed, Paul Scholes described it like “make me pee”, the most interesting reaction was that of the man himself.
“No, obviously I love Ian Wright and he says so many good things about me, but I don’t think putting myself out of position is the solution,” Saka replied when asked by the BBC about Wright’s idea.
“Ultimately I think we can talk about it, but it’s in Gareth’s hands so we’ll just have to trust who Gareth selects that day.”
Saka rarely missteps in his words or his play, but this was a polite slap in the face to a man idolized at the club he plays for.
The Arsenal talisman has every right to do so given he has played at a very high level for his club as a right winger.
However, it illustrates a wider problem facing the current England team.
At the last European Championship three years ago, Saka was a revelation. At just 19, his emergence has been one of the tournament’s most memorable stories.
Although he missed a penalty in the final, his momentum continued in the following campaigns and his status in the team was no longer that of an impressive signing but that of an established star.
The blessing for England is that Saka is far from the only player in this situation.
Jude Bellingham has gone from being the youngest Englishman to appear at a major tournament in 2021, with his appearances mainly coming at Birmingham City, to Real Madrid’s leader and Champions League winner.
Phil Foden arrived at Euro 2020 having established himself in Manchester City’s first team, but arrives at this year’s tournament as Football Writers’ Player of the Year and talisman of the Premier’s best team League.
On paper, that makes England a more formidable team, but it also creates a different dynamic.
Players like Saka, Bellingham and Foden are now all stars with egos, less malleable, certainly less flexible and a different proposition to manage.
At the last Euro there was only one true megastar, Harry Kane, supporting actor Raheem Sterling was certainly up there, but he joined the team after a campaign where he hadn’t been his club’s first choice.
The difference this time around is that Kane is playing alongside three Galaticos and even the man behind them, Declan Rice, is now a $120 million star.
What’s so interesting is that Ian Wright was right, Saka played as a winger, which is how he broke into the Arsenal first team.
Looking back on his approach to this role as a younger person, you can see how different his attitude was.
In 2018, young Saka was playing for Arsenal’s under-23 team at full-back, a position that another legendary north London figure, Freddie Ljungberg, who was their manager at the time , asked him to play.
Discuss being used in this position his answer was very different.
“It’s a new formation that the manager is playing, so I just had to adapt to it,” Saka told Arsenal’s official website.
“I’m happy to play anywhere in the team. If we continue to play with this formation, I just want to master it so I can play as a full-back, get fit, cross, make assists and score goals. I just want to make assists and score goals for the team. »
Of course, this is an extreme comparison; the enthusiasm of a 17-year-old will always be different from the confidence of a twenty-something.
But that confidence needed to disagree with a club legend and push back on an idea that could benefit the team exists across the star-studded forward line.
If England are to progress they need to solve this problem, it’s not so much that putting Saka at left-back is the solution, the problem is getting them all to sacrifice a bit more for the team.
