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In a somewhat lacklustre performance in Reykjavik, England were able to secure a 1-0 victory over Iceland in their opening game of the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League campaign.
The game hardly saw an impressive performance from Gareth Southgate’s side. England bossed possession but struggled to create any meaningful chances, with their winning goal coming from a controversial penalty awarded after a late handball from Sverrir Ingason who was shown his second yellow card for the infraction.
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Iceland could’ve had a late equaliser when Joe Gomez gave away a soft spot-kick, but former Aston Villa man Birkir Bjarnason fired his penalty over the bar.
On that note, here are five talking points from England’s win over Iceland in their 2020-21 UEFA Nations League opener.
#1: England fail to make the most of their possession advantage
England were always likely to have the lion’s share of the ball in this game and sure enough, they had a huge statistical advantage – ending the game with 78% possession. However, Gareth Southgate’s side failed to make the most of it, ending the game with just four shots on target.
It was yet another example of England struggling to deal with a deep-lying side who were willing to use a low block in defence. The Three Lions were able to cut through sides using this style of play in qualifying for Euro 2020. But Iceland are clearly a tougher team than the likes of Montenegro and Kosovo as they largely managed to keep England at bay.
To put it simply, England didn’t move the ball quick enough for large swathes of this game. They were too comfortable to keep possession for the sake of it, with their primary playmaker Phil Foden being largely anonymous.
Could this be put down to rustiness, given it was England’s first international game following a highly strange season? Perhaps yes, but if Southgate’s side wish to win the European Championship next summer, they’ll need to improve massively on tonight's performance.
#2: Iceland offered very little throughout the game
When Iceland defeated England at Euro 2016 to make the quarterfinals of that tournament, they were a very basic, functional side, but they were also highly effective, particularly from set-pieces. The England win was a massive achievement for them, but they also looked dangerous in their matches with sides like Portugal and France.
However, it was clear based on tonight’s game that the current Iceland side are just not as good as the one that headed to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, let alone Euro 2016.
Part of that was obviously due to the weaker squad they had to select from – key men like Gylfi Sigurdsson and Johann Berg Gudmundsson withdrew – but even when England were reduced to ten men, Erik Hamren’s side offered basically nothing in attack.
It was telling that the game ended with Iceland having just two shots on goal, with none of them being on target, including their late penalty. Based on this game, Iceland could struggle to remain in League A when the current Nations League campaign comes to an end.
#3: Kyle Walker’s international career could be over after his red card
Kyle Walker was a somewhat surprising selection in England’s starting XI against Iceland. Not only had the Manchester City right-back displayed patchy form towards the end of the season, he also found himself in hot water during the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown when he was caught breaking the lockdown rules on two occasions.
Gareth Southgate evidently decided to give the 30-year-old another chance after leaving him out of most of his recent squads. But on tonight’s showing, it is plausible that Walker may not be given another one.
Walker didn’t have a bad game per se, but he didn’t exactly offer a lot going forward. He picked up a cheap booking in the first half after nudging Albert Gundmundsson following an errant pass from Eric Dier, but worse was still to come.
For reasons best known to him, the City man decided to lunge at Arnor Ingvi Traustason with little chance of winning the ball. It was clear as soon as the challenge went in that Walker was going to be sent off.
The red card was the first one for an England player under Southgate, and while it didn’t trigger any major attacks from Iceland, it definitely made the job harder for the Three Lions.
With rivals for the spot at right-back including Trent Alexander-Arnold – who was bizarrely left on the bench tonight – and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, surely enough is enough for Walker at this stage. To move on from him would be the correct decision for Southgate.
#4: Phil Foden looked out of depth on his full debut
Despite only starting a handful of games for Manchester City, there has been a clamour for playmaker Phil Foden to be included in England’s senior squad for some time. There’s no doubt that the 20-year old is incredibly talented, something that he has shown throughout his career with England’s youth teams as well as with Manchester City.
When the 2019-20 season restarted after its suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foden was used much more often by Pep Guardiola and was outstanding. Naturally then, it was no surprise to see him named in England’s squad and then in tonight’s starting lineup.
However, the midfielder failed to make an impact on his senior debut. Foden was utilised as England’s primary playmaker, sitting in front of the more defensive Declan Rice and James Ward-Prowse, but was unable to break down Iceland’s deep-lying defence.
The 20-year-old touched the ball just 61 times and while he had a pass success rate of 88%, he also lost the ball on a number of occasions in key areas when England were attempting to break through.
Essentially, England looked more dangerous in Euro 2020 qualifiers when Ross Barkley and Mason Mount were used in Foden's position, which suggests that it might be slightly too early for Foden to be a starter in this side.
#5: Kieran Trippier was a square peg in a round hole for England
The biggest question around England coming into this game was who Gareth Southgate was going to pick at left-back. His squad didn’t contain a natural fit for the position given Ben Chilwell and Luke Shaw were both injured. But strangely enough, Southgate refused to call up Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka from the U-21 squad despite the player performing well for his club in that position.
When it came down to it, Atletico Madrid right-back Kieran Trippier was deployed in the position; while he didn’t look completely out of place, it was clear that he wasn’t completely comfortable either.
Trippier was able to register a 93% pass-success rate but continually had to slow play down in order to cut inside onto his stronger right foot. And while he put in six crosses – more than that of any other England player – and created three chances, he simply looked like a square peg in a round hole.
England now play Denmark on Tuesday night. While it’s too late to call an orthodox left-back into the squad, surely a more versatile, two-footed player like Ainsley Maitland-Niles could be a better bet than Trippier at left-back.
