Lee Carsley to abandon England experiment against Finland after Greece disaster
Lee Carsley plans to change England’s formation for Sunday’s trip to Finland but insists the defeat by Greece “won’t stop” him from experimenting.
The Three Lions’ interim manager named an unusual lineup on Thursday night at Wembley, selecting a highly-attacking front six but no out-and-out centre-forward.
England laboured to a disastrous 2-1 defeat to keep them behind Greece in Nations League Group B2 as they saw hopes of a return to League A dented, along with Carsley’s hopes of securing the manager’s job on a full-time basis.
Carsley insists his remit remains the same after two wins and a defeat from three games in charge and says it “definitely does not feel” like the permanent job is his to lose.
“We had a disappointing night, but I definitely don't get too high or too low,” he said. “I’ve had enough setbacks in football. I’ve got to lead by example.
“We need to be better, and I include myself in that. We tried something, it didn’t come off. It could have gone the other way and been really good, and then we’re talking about ‘we’ve found another way of playing’.
“If any things have got to get pointed, they are at me. It was my idea. I thought I picked the best team. That was the plan; that is always the plan. I was confident going into the game. I’m disappointed and frustrated that it’s not worked.”
The 50-year-old former Republic of Ireland international added: “Sometimes we didn't make great decisions — we gave the ball away in really easy areas that left us open for a counter-attack, so we need to be better.
“The way that I want my teams to play, I want us to attack. When you've got the players that we have available for a change of system, I wanted to try something different.
“It won't stop me trying something different in the future, because I’ve done okay being like this. I had 17, 18 or 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on a counter-attack — that was definitely not how I wanted to coach. What we've seen in glimpses of training, there's definitely potential there.”
England travel to Helsinki on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s match against Finland, who they beat 2-0 at Wembley last month thanks to a brace from Harry Kane on the occasion of his 100th cap. Kane missed the Greece loss with a minor injury issue but could return against the Finns.
Asked whether he will again select a formation without a conventional striker this weekend, Carsley conceded: “I probably won't, no. I probably won't try that again on Sunday.
“I think I've been coaching [long] enough to know that we need to do something different. Had Harry been fit, I might have gone down another route. We’re going to assess him [on Friday]. He’s training with us tomorrow. He’s a massive part of what we do.”
