Match date: 14 June 2014

England came into the tournament with a youthful squad; they have four players under the age of 21, the most in the tournament. It is certainly an approach that England fans should be pleased with, especially considering the man to make the squad selection is Roy Hodgson, who is often criticised (rightfully so) for his archaic tactics.

Italy have been entertaining to watch under Prandelli. They made the final of Euro 2012 and, despite being beaten 4-0, played attractive football throughout the tournament. Prandelli has shuffled his formations between a 3-5-2/3-5-1-1 and a 4-3-3 so it is always interesting to see how he sets out his side.

Italy’s Formation, Hodgson Outdone by Prandelli

As mentioned above, it was always going to be interested to see how Prandelli deployed his starting XI. In the end it was tactically very intriguing. It was something of a 4-3-3, with very narrow wingers in Marchisio and Candreva shuttling in the channels and very advanced full backs in Chiellini and Darmian. At times it looked like Italy had a back three with De Rossi acting like a liberio, moving into midfield when he felt like it, but always seeming to find a place alongside Paletta and Barzagli.

Coming into the match, Hodgson said that England had a plan to contain Pirlo, but it was soon obvious that they did not. There was no man-marking from Sterling as the number 10 or an overload in that zone to keep Italy from circulating the ball away from that area. At the end of the match, Pirlo completed 103 passes as he found plenty of space to dictate Italy’s play. He was clever in his movement too. With De Rossi as the deepest midfielder/libero, whenever Pirlo felt he could not receive the ball safely, he instead ran beyond the England midfielders, drawing them with him and allowing the space in front of De Rossi to open up, giving him the opportunity to direct the play.

The biggest tactical move by Prandelli, however, was the positioning of Marchisio and Candreva. In this 4-3-3-esque formation, they were positioned throughout the match in the channels between the England full backs and centre backs. They would drift more central from time to time as the rotation of Pirlo, Veratti, and De Rossi was occurring to provide a vertical option, but rarely (Candreva did, but mostly to create an overload with Darmian and to cross) did Marchisio drift into wider positions than the England full backs, which allowed Italy to overload Gerrard and Henderson, while also allowing Chiellini and Darmian to have plenty of space to run into. Below, you can see a very good example of Italy’s space throughout the match, in the move that led up to the corner kick resulting in the opening goal.

As mentioned above, Chiellini and Darmian had plenty of space to run into and it left Glen Johnson and Leighton Baines exposed to 1v1 and 2v1 situations. Johnson is not a great 1v1 defender, but was helped out by Welbeck and was fortunate that Chiellini looked uncomfortable as a full back. However, on the right side of Italy’s attack, they were able to expose Baines time and time again with Darmian’s constant runs and Candreva’s support play to create an overload on that side. It was such a glaring problem and one that wasn’t fixed until it was too late for England. The biggest cause of this constant threat down the right side of Italy’s attack was that Wayne Rooney, deployed on the left for England at the start, failed miserably in tracking Darmian’s runs, which left him having to decide which of Darmian and Candreva to pressure. It was such a cause for concern, that Hodgson switch Welbeck to the left at half time, only for Italy to continue attacking down the right and for Welbeck to fail to support Baines as well.

Hodgson could have made another switch as well. Moving Henderson to the left side (Gerrard to the right) of the two holding midfielders would have allowed Henderson to track the inside-out runs of Candreva and nullify the space in front of Jagielka and between the centre back and Baines that Candreva was able to take advantage of. Baines would have been able to focus on Darmian’s runs forward and Henderson would have been able to close down Candreva’s crossing zone with his work rate.

England’s Initial Setup

Hodgson made plenty of mistakes throughout the match, but many could have been avoided had he selected a less forced and more adventurous starting XI. Rooney had no place in the starting XI and it is strange that a nation like England has to play a player out of position to force his inclusion into the squad. Despite providing the cross for Daniel Sturridge’s goal, the best part of the move of Sterling’s through ball to Rooney. There were better candidates for a starting spot on the left and based on Rooney’s form, his inclusion was unnecessary. There were some that thought he would start in the number 10 role, but with players like Barkley, who are much more comfortable running at defenses and receiving the ball on the half turn, Rooney wasn’t the best option there either, had Hodgson played him there. In the end, he landed on the left and was poor.

With Rooney on the left and Welbeck on the right, Hodgson opted for Sterling through the middle. The 19-year old has played in a similar position with Liverpool this year when Brendan Rodgers played with a diamond midfield and was England’s best player in the first half. With Barkley and Lallana on the bench, however, Hodgson could have played with a more balanced and exciting line up.

England’s Changes

There were numerous issues that Hodgson needed to address regarding his initial selection and aside from swapping Welbeck and Rooney to try to neutralise Candreva and Darmian, it took the England manager eleven minutes after Italy’s second goal to make a change. There was little width in the side as the team’s most natural wide player was playing in the number 10 role and neither Johnson nor Baines were able to get up the field often enough to provide a consistent outlet.

Barkley was the first player off the bench, replacing Welbeck, with Sterling moving to the right. Immediately Barkley was able to get a good shot on target, forcing Sirigu to make a save down to his left, one more shot on target than Rooney had. With Barkley’s introduction, England had a Sterling to provide width on the right and Barkley to receive, turn, and run at the Italian defense and midfield, both who dropped off more and more once Barkley received.

Wilshere was introduced for Henderson in the 73rd minute and Lallana for Sturridge in the 80th, but neither really had the time or opportunity needed to have an impact on the match.

Conclusion

Italy were able to play much of their game through Pirlo and De Rossi, something Hodgson said England had a plan to deal with. However, the Italian duo completed 202 passes combined, just under half of the entire England squad’s total.

Prandelli’s tactics got the better of both Hodgson’s tactics and team selection and it will be interesting to see the changes that Hodgson makes in England’s next match as he failed to properly react in this match to Italy’s clear threats.

Italy were able to play through the lines fairly easily throughout the match, but one thing that they need is for Balotelli to get involved more often and make better runs off the ball. He came back and offered his midfielders a vertical option, but once he laid the ball off, his movement was poor at times.