England left exposed in midfield as Sarina Wiegman struggles to strike a balance
England trailed 2-0 and she had been replaced by Grace Clinton in the 77th minute. The Bayern Munich midfielder has had a long road to recovery, too — 70 to 80 rehab sessions — since undergoing knee surgery on January 30. Her rustiness showed as, alongside Keira Walsh, the duo struggled to get a grip in the midfield area and were overrun.
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Before starting England's opening game against France on Saturday, Stanway had only played 135 minutes of football since her injury. Given her importance in midfield, and England's lack of depth in that area, she seemed a must-starter against a front-footed, technically proficient and physical France midfield.
The bigger surprise was seeing Lauren James start. Up until last Sunday, she had not played a game for three months because of a hamstring injury and only played 30 minutes against Jamaica last weekend.
The gamble seemed to have paid off, though, when in the opening minute James, playing in the advanced midfield role, found herself with a great goalscoring opportunity but failed to hit the target, then delivered a promising deep cross which her team-mates could not reach.
The Chelsea forward instigated an England goal on the quarter-hour mark which was eventually disallowed. She cut inside and ran at the French defenders before switching the ball to Beth Mead who was in space. Pauline Peyraud-Magnin palmed Hemp's shot away and Alessia Russo was quickest to react, but VAR found Mead to be a millimetre offside.
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England struggled to recover from that disappointment and, from then on in, were architects of their own downfall.
They were sloppy in possession, particularly in midfield which looked exposed. Sarina Wiegman put that down to losing the ball early in the build-up play.
Her team created their own problems by playing short passes which allowed France to press aggressively. Wiegman wanted her side to skip players and play balls in behind, but they were not tight enough on the ball nor quick enough to play out of the press. Stanway and Walsh failed to get into any kind of rhythm and looked off the pace. They were not the only ones.
France's technical midfield trio of Oriane Jean-Francois, Grace Geyoro and captain Sakina Karchaoui stayed compact, were intense but tidy, hoovered up second balls and ruled the middle of the pitch.
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As shown below, they released the ball quickly out wide to release wingers Sandy Baltimore and Delphine Cascarino and wreaked havoc, terrorising England full-backs Jess Carter and Lucy Bronze.
'It felt like they could go wherever they wanted,' said Carter, who thought England were a 'little bit scared' and not 'aggressive enough'. 'We all have days where we're just having a bit of a 'mare on the ball and, unfortunately, today there was more than one player doing that.'
This was not a game where England could afford to let standards drop. 'France is a proper team,' said Wiegman. 'You have to do things right.'
Captain Leah Williamson described the one-v-one defending as 'cheap' and disagreed that the defence was disjointed, instead pointing to her team being too 'expansive' and failing to keep the ball.
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By contrast, as shown by the pass map below, England's midfield was left exposed with a big hole in the middle of the pitch.
For all of James' offensive talents, her freer role leaves the midfield vulnerable. Mead tucked in more centrally to compensate but it was not effective.
James has more often played on the wing for the Lionesses and only in the No 10 role when England have played a 3-5-2 with more bodies in midfield. Should Wiegman have started her on the wing or even kept it tighter for an hour and then brought James off the bench?
Ella Toone or Grace Clinton do not offer the same attacking threat as James and may have been too safe against such a hard-hitting opponent. Equally, looking to the bench, England do not have any depth behind Walsh and Stanway that could have elevated their levels.
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Wiegman did not have any regrets about her starting XI and did not think starting James was a mistake.
'We'd be having a different conversation,' she pointed out, had James scored in the first minute or a team-mate had got a head to her cross. Indeed, if Russo's goal had stood, would we have been questioning Wiegman's decisions?
You need a lot of quality and a bit of luck in major tournaments. England had neither. They were unlucky to have their goal ruled out and that France's second goal stood following another VAR check on Maelle Lakrar's challenge on Russo in the build-up, but the reality is they were still outclassed.
Walsh's well-hit strike in the 87th minute reignited the England machine but it was too little, too late.
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England could not afford to start this tournament slowly and must improve against the Netherlands on Wednesday to stand any chance of making the knockout stages.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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