England beat Czech Republic 3-0, making it three wins from four in this extended international break.
On Harry Kane‘s 125th appearance for the Three Lions, the 33-year-old scored his 12th and 13th goals for England this year, making him the only player to score 12+ goals in a calendar year for England since 1927 for the third time.
Kane managed this in 2019 and 2021, scoring 12 goals and 16 goals in those years for his country.
It was also the England captains cross into the box which resulted in an own-goal from Vladimir Coufal, opening the scoring to put the Three Lions 1-0 up.
Being 3-0 up, Thomas Tuchel was able to make changes in the 63rd minute, bringing Everton duo Jarrad Branthwaite and James Garner into the fray for their third and fifth caps respectively, before bringing both Rio Ngumoha and Morgan Gibbs-White off the bench in the 72nd minute and Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the 81st minute.
In this article, we’ll cover
England create tension
England established early control in the game, making it difficult for Czech Republic to press them in their 4-4-2 defensive shape.
With Elliot Anderson and Myles Lewis-Skelly managing the build up, one would drop between the two centre-backs, giving England the 3v2 overload against the front two of Czech Republic.
It also extended the pressing distance for the two opposition central midfielders, making it difficult for the opposition to transition between a zonal and man to man pressing scheme, which in turn, allowed England to establish control in the game.
England would then look to work the ball into areas of tension for the Czech Republic block, which they did with two main strategies.
The first one, was mainly looking to work down their right-hand side, with Trent Alexander-Arnold advancing to work in tandem with Morgan Rogers.
With the two players often switching between wider positions and the inside pocket, the pair were able to cause problems for Jiri Slama at left-back.
If Alexander-Arnold drifted inside, it would often pin Slama narrow who was wary of the underlapping run, giving Rogers space to receive switches of play and attack the space beyond. However, if Rogers was the one staying narrow and pinning Slama inside, Alexander-Arnold was often able to arrive from deep, running off of Ondrej Lingr at left-midfield and arriving in areas dynamically to put crosses into the box.
Rogers arriving into that space beyond was seen for England’s second goal, receiving a looped pass in behind from Anderson before providing the first time cutback across goal for Kane to slot home.
But England were also able to find Kane dropping into midfield zones, creating a tension for the Czech Republic midfield.
With one of the midfielders dropping into the first line, it often left the opposition midfield two staggered, looking to manage the single pivot and Jude Bellingham floating between the lines.
As the Czech Republic midfield were being dragged apart, Kane was able to drop to occupy those zones and get touches in deeper areas on the ball, often looking for those switches of play out towards the right where England could access their other tension against the opposition block.
Kane’s record night
On the night of his 125th England cap, it was the captain who stole the show, involved in all three goals, bagging a brace for himself which takes him to 91 goals for his country.
For the opening goal, it was actually Kane finding himself in a wider area, having the time to pick his head up and fizz a ball across the box. With the ball bouncing across the defenders path, it was a difficult ball for Coufal to deal with, forcing the own-goal to make it 1-0.
Kane then added his first goal of the game, his 90th for England, arriving in the six-yard box perfectly to tap home a lovely ball across the box from Rogers.
With the 33-year-old often looking to drop into midfield areas, this also gives him separation from the central defenders, meaning he can arrive more dynamically with his movement to avoid more physical defenders.
His second goal of the game and 91st England goal was a header from a corner, with Lewis Hall finding a ball to the back post for Kane to nod home at the near post just underneath Lukas Hornicek between the sticks.
Tuchel’s aggressive press continues
Something that has been clear in all four of England’s games this international break is the intent to press more aggressively, both from restarts and when looking to jump man for man.
This included Kane looking to mark the left centre-back before arching his run towards the keeper to force it long, while Bellingham stepped onto the right centre-back.
Both Anderson and Lewis-Skelly are key to this, as their tenacity to put the double pivot under pressure and deter Czech Republic from finding central access often leads to errors or long balls out from the back.
Anderson specifically won a few duels jumping onto the opposition pivot in the first half, nearly creating chances from those quick turnovers and passes forward into space.
For this to work, the clarity of the press has to be unanimous throughout the entire team, which often means a centre-back will have to step out aggressively and track their man over a large distance.
Throughout this international break, that has been one of the biggest things noticed, whether it be Marc Guehi, Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa or Trevoh Chalobah, the intent to follow their man with tenacity and force them backwards regardless of the distance has been vital to collective idea.
Doing this in the Nations League is one thing, but whether England deploy this type of aggressive press in big tournaments is another question, and one we will have to wait until 2028 to find out.