EPL TALK: England will win nothing with old guard

HARRY Maguire and Jordan Henderson may feel like they’re being picked on, the fall guys in that familiar riff on England being no country for old men. But neither is the case really. Kyle Walker deserves his place among the veterans. Maguire and Henderson do not. They are being picked on, but for different reasons.

The ageing duo represent the poster boys for a manager’s innate caution and misplaced loyalty. Henderson is no stranger to being a poster boy for awkward situations and it's hard to ignore the irony that the latest influencer for all things Saudi can’t really influence England anymore. And if Maguire drops any deeper in defence, he’ll drop back into the 2010s, the last time his style of defending was de rigueur at elite level.

But this isn’t their fault. None of the criticism being lobbed their way reflects their character or professionalism. They are giving everything, as always. But their everything is no longer enough. There’s a sense that Maguire giving his all hasn’t sufficed for some time in the English Premier League, where managers have moved towards more agile quarter-backs, blending the best of John Stones and Trent Alexander-Arnold to create something fresh, exhilarating and trophy-winning - words not typically associated with Gareth Southgate’s England.

The Three Lions manager perseveres with old warhorses who may not lose him a game, but are unlikely to win him one either. His longstanding reluctance to take the chances of Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing, Pep-ball or even Ange-ball ensures the inclusion of Maguire and Henderson, whatever the current playing circumstances.

And what’s wrong with that? Sir Alf Ramsey stuck with Bobby Moore, putting the World Cup winner’s peerless positional play ahead of his declining pace. Ron Greenwood continued to pick Trevor Brooking after the playmaker was relegated at club level. And several managers persisted with David Beckham, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and other members of the golden generation, ignoring age, fitness and broken metatarsals in the hope of muscle memory trumping common sense at major tournaments.

But there are subtle differences. Loyalty was generally reserved for those still competing at respectable levels regularly (which is why there are no concerns over 33-year-old Walker). Henderson has taken the money in exchange for some surreal mixed messaging over LGBTQ+ issues, a willing pawn for a regime trying to edge its investments away from fossil fuels. And Maguire does feel a little like a defensive fossil fuel as the game moves towards hybrid models like John Stones.

Maguire has started three matches for Manchester United since April. He has managed 23 minutes of club football this season. Old Trafford has seen more of the mascot. The centre-back should be allowed to grow old gracefully with a club of his choice, at some point, and be spared further, unkind analysis of his lack of mobility.

But Southgate persists with both Maguire and Henderson, the unwitting victims of another man’s risk-averse football. The Three Lions were laboured against Ukraine, playing sideways and backwards, dropping deeper into areas that are alien to Declan Rice at Arsenal and Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid.

Will Southgate's innate cautiousness bring home a trophy?

Southgate has always concerned himself with space, but too often on the wrong side of the halfway line.

England had 79 per cent of possession in the first 20 minutes and cultivated a single shot at goal. Watching Bellingham and Rice hang back as Maguire and Marc Guehi swapped benign passes between them was like having a couple of Renaissance painters on the payroll, but giving them larger brushes to sweep the floor. A job still gets done. But it’s a dispiriting, talent-squandering spectacle.

England should be built around Bellingham, a midfielder with a startling range of abilities, not least an eagerness to press quickly, to find overlapping full-backs, or anyone with a licence to try and do what they’re doing for him every week at the Bernabéu. If the approach is good enough for Real Madrid, then it’s not good enough for England, obviously. Instead, Bellingham tries to move among static parts, watching Henderson grasp for spaces he can no longer reach in a restricted side.

Of course, it's important not to get carried away. Southgate has reached a semi-final and a final. The knockout stages are a given these days, in any tournament. England have won 21 of their last 23 Euro qualifiers and their place at Euro 2024 is largely assured in Germany, where the hosts have this week lost a game, a manager and the plot as they strive for the kind of consistency that the Three Lions take for granted.

And Maguire and Henderson performed admirably in previous tournaments, creating warm and fuzzy memories along the way. It’s worth remembering how good Maguire used to be with the Three Lions. That should mean something, right?

It does. But compare Maguire’s journey with Southgate’s England to Stones’ evolution at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Stones has undergone a tactical, physical and mental transformation. He no longer defends games. He controls them, making the most of his ball-playing attributes to move further up the pitch, in tandem with elite football itself.

Through his club manager’s guidance, Stones has moved on. Maguire hasn’t. While Henderson has moved away from elite football altogether, a willing participant in a global PR experiment that reflects these awkward times. We’re all struggling to keep up.

And yet, there’s Southgate, a beacon of familiarity, a tactical metronome, wedded to his coaching values and faithful to those who brought him this far. The more things change, the more they stay relatively slow and predictable for England, with James Maddison and Harry Kane struggling to see the ball and the rest of us struggling to stay awake.

It’ll be enough to reach Euro 2024. There’s enough once-in-a-generational talent to carry England’s old boys to another respectable showing before another, inevitable near-miss. Southgate’s allegiance is admirable, but it won’t bring home the trophy.

Neil Humphreys is an award-winning football writer and a best-selling author, who has covered the English Premier League since 2000 and has written 28 books.

Follow the new EPL season with the "Footballing Weekly" show on YouTube, Spotify and Acast.

For more football news, visit our Football page on Yahoo!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.