Former Manchester United ace Luke Chadwick has spoken exclusively to CaughtOffside about the change he expects England manager Gareth Southgate to make for the upcoming Euro 2020 quarter-final against Ukraine.
The Three Lions enjoyed a memorable 2-0 win over Germany in their last game, with goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane giving the team victory at Wembley.
Southgate initially named a very defensive-looking line up, but the introduction of Jack Grealish from the bench made a big difference as they opened Germany up late on.
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Chadwick admits there was probably some frustration about Southgate’s approach to the Germany game, but he thinks it’s likely there will be a more attack-minded formation taking to the field against Ukraine.
Chadwick also expects we will see Grealish get a start for England this time, as there won’t be quite the same need to be cautious as there was against a team like Germany, who are, on paper at least, full of much higher quality players.
“For the first 70 minutes you probably wouldn’t call it a great performance, but in terms of its significance it was huge,” Chadwick told CaughtOffside. “Coming against Germany, a top team who we have a terrible record against in major tournaments, it’s a huge achievement.
“Everyone was probably moaning about the team selection again, but Southgate has come up trumps once again, making changes at the right time, and it ends up being a wonderful win for England.
“Now we take on Ukraine, and there’ll be huge expectations, rightly so, because we’ve put ourselves into a great position to go and reach the final of a major tournament.
“I think everyone was a bit disappointed not to see Grealish start, but Gareth went for a team to match up against the Germans, with Grealish coming on later against a tiring team and making a great impact on the game.
“I think it will be a slightly different team selection against Ukraine, perhaps going back to a 4-2-3-1 and looking to dominate possession and take the game to the opposition, so potentially Grealish might start that game.
“After the first four games, I think we’ve learned to trust Gareth with what he’s doing. It’ll be interesting to see if he stays with three at the back, but I think he could try a back four and try and take the game to Ukraine.”