England expects...or does it?

Decoding Southgate's messages ahead of the European Championship final

In one of my favourite pubs on the entire planet, The Hero of Waterloo, in Sydney, Australia, there is an inscription on the 19th century sandstone wall that has always fascinated me.

Situated in the Rocks, the most evocative area of that great city, the solid sandstone boozer features a famous line by Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1805.

‘England expects every man to do his duty…’

Th signal was sent to his British fleet via telegraphic signals decoded by his men.

Translating the numeric flag code directly led to his men doing their duty. And how. Outnumbered by the combined Spanish and French fleet their tactics were to simply race headlong first into battle.

Their ‘gameplan’ was literally smashing up the ships under Napoleon’s command during the fierce battle at Cape Trafalgar, a headland in the Province of Cadiz, in southern Spain. In the aftermath 22 ships were destroyed. None were British.

Nelson’s fleet was victorious (even if the commander in chief was mortally wounded) as they grabbed control of the seas, and fear of a French invasion was banished once and for all.

You could say Southgate invoking this spirit will help England’s chances.

But you’d be wrong. Completely and utterly wrong.

Here’s why

I’m not one for invoking battle imagery in my writing. It’s too cliched, too simplistic, too trite.

No, the reason I referenced the line ‘Every man must do his duty’ is because it is the absolute antithesis of what Gareth Southgate is trying to achieve, when England take on Italy in the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley later today.

Decoding Gareth…

Here’s the thing under the Brave New World of Gareth Southgate: as he said on Saturday, he doesn’t expect his men to have the game of their lives.

He simply wants them to do exactly what they’ve been doing.

He doesn’t expect every man to do his ‘duty’ - in other words he doesn’t want his boys to perform a superhuman feat of gung-ho foolhardiness in a desperate bid to clinch an unexpected victory.

He simply wants them to continue being diligent. Professional. Calm. Composed. Sensible.

By removing tub thumping you lower expectations

By lowering expectations - thus removing the element of tub thumping that has done for England in the past - Southgate is taking away the element of fear, that can so paralyse performance. In football, in sport, in life.

How many times in the past have we seen the gung-ho side of the Three Lions fail valiantly? Or to borrow Jon Bon Jovi’s line, ‘shot down in a blaze of glory’. Or at the very least, in Skinner and Baddiel’s retelling: ‘We’ve seen it all before’.

Germany in Turin in 1990? Germany at Wembley in 1996? Argentina in St Etienne in 1998? Portugal in Lisbon in 2004? Portugal in Gelsenkirchen in 2006?

(To fill in the gaps of England’s European Championships performances in my lifetime it should be noted that in 1988, 1992, 2000, 2012 and 2016, as I’m sure you’ll all remember, we were just a bit, or more than a bit, er, sh*te.)

Southgate has deliberately lowered the temperature

In effect, he doesn’t want his players to go out and have the game of their lives. He wants them to follow the gameplan of their lives.

An instructive moment

There was a telling vignette for me ahead of the England vs Germany game. (Oh, how that already feels like another, more innocent age, back in the days when our expectations were far lower than Matt Hancock’s libido).

TV were showing youngsters in the current squad pictures of Euro 96. Gazza’s goal The dentist’s chair. You know the drill. Literally. And the tired cliches.

As you’re aware, all our players are unerringly polite under Southgate. Which is great if you want level headed human beings, less so if you’re looking for killer quotes. But their politeness is actually also quite revealing.

Their politeness reveals plenty. The thing that really struck me when the interviewer showed them Euro 96 footage was that no-one cared.

They actually didn’t give a flying f***

It meant nothing to them. Of course, they batted it off politely, similar the way a polite child would indulge a dotty uncle.

Yet it was so revealing. Because to them, watching the travails of that indulgent summer 25 years ago was ancient history. It was like showing a teenage version of myself footage of the 1962 World Cup in Chile during Italia 90.

It was at that precise moment, I fully understood Southgate’s side were utterly unencumbered by the weight of the failures of the past.

Of course, I still didn't think we’d beat Germany and get so far.

But I did think if we were to lose then it wouldn’t be because of any deep seated psychological baggage from past encounters. The same mindset that helped us beat Denmark in extra time in the semi-finals.

Decoding pre-match talk

Another type of decoding.

A former footballer who played for England explained to me how to decode pre-match talk in a brilliant way. A way that I still use as a fan, and as a journalist attending press conferences.

This former Three Lions star told me that if a player or manager is taking up opponents beforehand, it means you’re confident.

With the flip side meaning, as he told me, that: “If you’re saying you’ll do your best, and we’ll see what happens, ‘yada, yada yada’, it actually means: ‘You’re sh*t scared of playing a better team you know to be a better team in your heart’”.

Apply it next time your team plays a big game. Or, indeed, any game. It’s so revealing.

What is hugely instructive about England vs Italy is that both sides are talking up their opponents. Meaning both teams are confident.

Incidentally, I just got goose bumps writing that.

The fact an England side is confident going into the biggest game of their lives.

The fact that they genuinely believe they are more than a match for the four time World Cup winners gives me an adrenaline rush.

As it should do you as well. Because under Southgate, we don’t need every man to do his duty, we just need them to do their best - and simply do what they’ve been doing to get them this far.

Because, for once in international football, an England team doing its best will surely be good enough to bring it home.

I’m so very thankful and lucky I’ve got a ticket for Wembley today, but wherever you’re watching the big game, enjoy.

Let’s hope Roberto Mancini meets his match during Southgate’s very own Trafalgar.

Cheers

Layth

@laythy29