Interim England coach Lee Carsley said he would stick to his attacking principles after losing to Greece 2-0 in their Nations League tie on Thursday.
Thursday’s Nations League clash with Greece began with hopeful expectation and ended with boos from England fans after Vangelis Pavlidis secured a historic, and thoroughly deserved, 2-1 victory deep in stoppage time.
The Euro 2024 runners-up looked rudderless without the ball and toothless with it in an alarming all-round display as Carsley’s decision to deploy five attackers without an out-and-out striker backfired.
“The way I want my teams to play, I want us to attack,” England’s interim manager said.
“And when we had the players we have available, I wanted to try something different. Hindsight is perfect because it never happened.
“It wouldn’t stop me trying something different in the future because I have done OK being like this.
“I had 17, 18, 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on the counter-attack.
“That is definitely not how I want to coach. Nothing changes in that respect.”
While Carsley did not enjoy free-flowing football as a player, he has dealt with enough blows to help retain composure amid the fallout to Thursday’s shambolic performance.
The loss leaves England three points behind Group B2 leaders Greece, where they will begin November’s double-header after rounding off this month’s camp with a key clash away to winless Finland.
“I have had enough setbacks in football to know you are never too far away and I have got to lead by example, and I will,” Carsley said as attention switches to Sunday.
“My belief in this team hasn’t changed. We need to be better, and I include myself in that definitely.
“We tried something tonight, it didn’t come off. It could have gone the other way and we are talking about ‘we’ve found another way of playing’.
“I’m really wary about ruling something out so quickly when we have literally done it for an hour.
“If any fingers get pointed, they’re at me, I wanted to try something, it didn’t come off, but we go again.”
Carsley still feels “there is definitely some potential” to play Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer in the same side moving forward despite Thursday’s discombobulated display. PA
