Anthony Gordon believes England do not have the technical ability to replicate world champions Spain’s football and has urged Three Lions fans to stop demanding a style of play that is at odds with the country’s footballing identity.
The 25-year-old Barcelona winger scored the opener in England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina before Thomas Tuchel‘s side conceded two late goals to fall agonisingly short of reaching their first final since 1966.
Tuchel received widespread criticism in the wake of that defeat, particularly over his comments that keeping the ball is not within England’s ‘DNA’, amid complaints about his negative tactics in the closing moments of the match.
Gordon, who has made an impressive start to life at Barcelona since his £70million move from Newcastle in the summer, now shares a dressing room with eight members of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad. He insists he can offer a unique perspective now that he has crossed the divide.
‘I think culturally it’s not just that tournament or that game (against Argentina) where we couldn’t control the game. England as a nation, we don’t have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do,’ Gordon said.
‘It’s not in us, I’m not sure it’s something that can be taught. I think playing in Spain, I can speak with an educated view, and the way they keep the ball is different. It’s much different than I’ve ever experienced playing in this country. I’m not sure we can ever get that.’
Anthony Gordon believes England do not have the technical ability to replicate world champions Spain’s football
The winger defended England boss Thomas Tuchel, who has face heavy criticism for the manner of their World Cup exit
Gordon believes playing for Barcelona has helped him realise the decision making of certain players in Spain is not a natural thing to English stars
Gordon firmly planted his flag in Tuchel’s camp, using the exact same wording as he insisted that possession-based football ‘is not in the English DNA’.
‘I’ve only realised it to that extent from playing in Spain now, because I think we as English players are educated the same way as the Spanish players. We know how to keep possession, but it’s the decision-making of certain players in Spain which just isn’t a natural thing (to us).
‘I even look at some of the decisions (Spanish players) take on the ball sometimes and think, “I’m not sure how you’ve seen that.” It’s the way they’re built; I don’t know what it is, something that maybe we can’t ever put a name to. They’re definitely built differently.’
The alternative, in Gordon’s view, is to play to England’s strengths, which he insists are good enough to compete with the best teams in the world.
‘I feel like we are trying to replicate Spain. Because I’m in Spain now, I know we’ve got just as good players, but they have different qualities. Why try and make the (English) players the same as the Spanish players? Because the Spanish players lack the things that we have, and vice versa.
‘I think we need to stop looking elsewhere as a country, and be proud of who we are, what we are, and the things we have, and stop comparing ourselves with other countries, because we’re English. We’re not Spanish or French, or other countries who have succeeded.’
Besides, Gordon insists English fans do not really want to see their teams play that way anyway.
‘Playing against Premier League sides who try and play ultra football, tiki-taka football, I always feel like the fans don’t appreciate it as much,’ he said. ‘I feel like English fans want to see the English game, and in Spain they appreciate the Spanish style.
Gordon revealed he had never felt better than after opening the scoring for England in the semi-final against Argentina
He conceded he ‘never felt worse 20 minutes later’ after England’s heartbreaking defeat
‘The fans in England, they love a kind of basketball game, they love an athletic game, a direct game. When a team’s losing, they don’t want to see the team playing out from the back, they want to see a big striker winning headers and a bit of chaos. Maybe it’s time to tune into that.’
Reflecting on the semi-final defeat to Argentina, Gordon described the emotional rollercoaster of opening the scoring before seeing England’s World Cup dream slip away.
‘I’ve never felt better in the Argentina game than when I scored that goal, and I’ve also never felt worse than 20 minutes later.’
He also ventured into ‘what if’ territory, suggesting England would have posed a greater threat to Spain in the final than Argentina ultimately did. Spain dominated the underwhelming final for possession and shots, finally converting through Ferran Torres in extra time as Argentina resorted to attritional tactics, as they had done days earlier against England.
‘(England) got to the semi-final against the reigning world champions in a game which we should have won,’ he said. ‘In my opinion, we were the far better team for 60 minutes. OK, things took a turn and we didn’t win, but that is football. Football’s not perfect. Football doesn’t mean you can be the better team for 60 minutes, you can score and you’re always going to win. Just in the moment we lost the game.
‘I felt so confident. I felt like if we would have got to the final, I would have felt so confident playing Spain that we would come out victorious, but we just didn’t get there, so we’ll never know.’
Despite admitting his surprise at being substituted in the semi-final just 12 minutes after scoring, Gordon launched a staunch defence of Tuchel, insisting instead that the squad ‘have to take responsibility’ for their World Cup exit.
‘Everyone likes to blame the manager, because that’s football. But in my opinion, one person shouldn’t be responsible for a million different decisions that are happening at one time.
‘For me, we had the best team, we had the best players on the pitch in that semi-final, and in the last 20 minutes, we didn’t play the best football. That’s something the manager can’t really affect from the sideline. So I think, as a group, everyone together should take responsibility. We shouldn’t try to blame one man who’s obviously trying his best to win the game and win the cup for us all.’
