Qatar 2022: Rooney tells England to ignore focus on Mbappe and get the job done

Former England forward Wayne Rooney in his weekly column in The Times of London talked about his country can beat in Saturday’s Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup quarter-final match.

Said Rooney “England versus France is the biggest game of the World Cup so far and I believe that whoever wins it will win the tournament.

Before the tournament started I fancied Argentina but while Lionel Messi has been incredible, as a team they don’t quite seem good enough — but I just think that, physically and as collectives, England and France are better sides.

It’s going to be incredibly close, a tough game for both sides, an occasion where focus and concentration has to be of the highest level in every player. It’s the kind of match that will be won on small details — a mistake by an individual or a bit of magic from someone or a break of the ball or a set piece.

I can see it being decided late on by a player coming off the bench for either team. Sometimes, as players, when you play these tight, big games you put a lot of energy and focus into the start of the match and it’s the substitutes, who come on with fresh legs and clear heads — having seen how the game is panning out — that are able to make the difference.

Knowing you’re facing a brilliant opponent and that tiny margins will be decisive can intimidate players sometimes. But it can also go the other way and bring your concentration levels up to the max, leading to better performance, and that’s what England need to do — use the occasion positively, so they raise their standards.

Too much focus on Mbappe but Walker can handle him

Being positive is the key. There is so much focus on Kylian Mbappé but for England it’s important that they concentrate on their own jobs and consider not just how they stop France but how they can make it hard for France to stop them.

For example: fantastic as Mbappé is, he doesn’t get back or do much defensively so England should keep their right winger high and wide when in possession because there will be plenty of opportunities to get one on ones with Theo Hernández.

Hernández is a good full back but he is perhaps better going forward than he is at defending and I think England can expose him. They should use a left-footed player as their right winger, one who can come inside on to Hernández’s weaker foot: I would stick with an unchanged team and Bukayo Saka would be ideal v Hernández, though Phil Foden could switch wings and do the job too.

I’ve seen and heard a lot of stuff about whether Kyle Walker can handle Mbappé. Kyle’s a friend of mine — we used to be neighbours — and I think he will know he faces a tough challenge, but he will be ready for it. He has played so many big games for Manchester City and England against big opponents, and has done well against Mbappé in the Champions League.

‘’I think Gareth Southgate will use Kyle the way Pep Guardiola often does — where Kyle stays back while City’s left back pushes on. We won’t see Kyle bomb forward: he’ll move inside to make sure he is in a good defensive position when England are attacking. Why inside? Because the key is to not let Mbappé cut in, play one-twos and get his shots off.

‘’That means an important role for Jordan Henderson. In previous games we’ve seen Jordan attacking and ending up on the right wing but in this one I think we’ll see him stay central and be a bit more disciplined. He should be given responsibility to team up with Kyle, so that if Mbappé does cut inside he’ll find himself running into Jordan. It’s a job Jordan has done brilliantly for Liverpool in the past — filling holes on the right and providing cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Some think Gareth should go to 3-5-2, and use Kyle as a right centre back, with Kieran Trippier as right wing-back, to double up on Mbappé but, for me, sticking with 4-3-3 makes much more sense. With 3-5-2 you lose your threat of having natural attacking players high up the pitch in the wide positions and you end up with gaps between the central defenders — the kind Mbappé or Ousmane Dembélé would love to run into. And France only play with one striker, so you don’t need three centre backs to deal with that.

‘’I’m sure Kyle will be thinking a lot about body position. He’ll want to show Mbappé down the line and be close enough not to let him turn. Then he’ll want to be low enough to be ready to run with Mbappé if Mbappé does manage to spin and get on the charge.

There will be moments when that happens. Sometimes players are so good, so quick and so nimble on their feet that it’s impossible, every time, to stop them coming inside and Mbappé is in that category. That’s where Jordan providing cover comes in: when Mbappé does move inside England want to force him to lay the ball off into the middle of the pitch, where they’ve got bodies. Mbappé will go past Kyle and down the line a few times but, if in the right body position, Kyle is quick enough to get back and not let Mbappé get across him.

If Mbappé is kept wide and ends up crossing the ball, that’s what England want — because they’ll have two v one in the box and although Olivier Giroud is great in the air, so are John Stones and Harry Maguire. Their task is ensuring one of them always has an eye on Giroud. Often, centre backs focus on the space but this time Stones and Maguire have to focus on the man, and make sure one is tight to him, because aerially Giroud is such a danger.

‘’Declan Rice’s job is to do on the left what Henderson does on the right: come across and provide cover for the full back. Luke Shaw is having a fine tournament but has a job on his hands controlling Dembélé. In Qatar, Dembélé has been really good and he is an unpredictable player. Sometimes he gives the ball away but at other times does things that have a big impact on the game.

Bellingham must not play too deep, Griezmann could be dangerous

‘’I’m sure Jude Bellingham will drop in and do more defensively than against Senegal but it would be a mistake for him to be too deep and for England’s midfield to become a flat three. If that happens, England would get pinned back and end up just defending their box and find things difficult.

‘’Bellingham needs freedom — freedom to play and freedom to pick up positions offensively and defensively where he can have an impact. England’s second goal against Senegal came when he put himself near the edge of their box and counterattacked after a Senegal cross. Out of possession, England’s wingers must drop and tuck in to make a midfield four with Rice and Henderson, keeping the distances small and shuffling across. That would allow Bellingham, with and without the ball, to stay in that No 10-like role from which he has caused so much damage.

Rice, and when he comes deep, Bellingham, must help to deal with Antoine Griezmann. Both Griezmann and Adrien Rabiot are having great tournaments: they’re clever players and Griezmann is the one who can really hurt you with his through balls and little, dinked passes in behind. You can’t give him time to get on the ball and turn.

‘’I faced Griezmann when he was a young player at Real Sociedad. I agree with what David Moyes wrote in these pages — that Griezmann is quicker than you think. A lot of the top No 10s are like that. They’re a lot sharper than you imagine, fast in their movements, with a first touch that is always good. Messi was like that when he played the position and even Juan Mata and David Silva, who weren’t the quickest runners, were so sharp it was very hard to get the ball off them. When you face such players you’re almost better accepting you’re not going to win the ball and making them play backwards or sideways but getting close to prevent them getting their heads up and turning.

Kane has been brilliant

‘’But England have so many weapons. Harry Kane has had a brilliant World Cup and I wrote that once he got to the knockout stages he would focus more on being in the box which is what happened against Senegal where, as well as his goal, he nearly scored when sliding in to attack a cross and had a couple of other half-chances in the area.

‘’He will be really important in this game. I don’t think he’ll have as many touches as in previous matches but the unselfish work he does will be crucial, those moments when he holds up the ball and wins fouls. It could be a free kick that decides things.

‘’He is now just one strike from equalling my England goals record and if he does it against France I’ll be absolutely delighted, because it will mean England have a good chance of winning. The record will be in the back of his mind but won’t be his focus: Harry is going to be playing for England for another four or five years, so he knows it’s only a matter of time before the record is his.

Foden was also brilliant against Senegal. He helped to create two goals but the most impressive thing about Foden is he knows when to play one touch and knows when to keep the ball. It really helps the team to keep possession and play. He does the simple things really well — and often the simple things are the hardest things to do.

Marcus Rashford could come into Gareth’s thinking and it would not be the biggest surprise to me if he turned to Mason Mount, because of his work rate and the fact he does more against the ball than Saka and Foden. But it’s important that England keep doing what they’ve been doing — taking the ball and being brave — and I think Gareth’s selection, if he makes the right one, could drum that into the players. A positive selection would give them a positive message. If he brings Mount in, or makes other changes to put more workers into the line-up, I fear the impact it could have on the rest of the lads. They might think, “Bloody hell, the manager is trying to stay in the game, he’s looking at extra time and penalties.” I have nothing against Mount by the way, who is a top player with many talents and a lot of energy. I just think Saka, Foden and Rashford are more explosive.

Gareth has huge calls to make and we should trust him, because what he has done in three tournaments, now, is incredible and he knows the players better than anyone. If he goes a different way to mine, fine, I’ll trust his reasons. But I do hope he goes brave in this one.

France defense okay not fantastic

Defensively, France are OK but not brilliant so if England are confident enough to take the ball and stay on the ball and play in France’s half, they will cause them big problems. There will be times when England can have success on the counterattack but if England only play on the break, France have enough experience to deal with it.

Playing on the break was the tactic England reverted to against Italy in the Euro 2020 final and Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals.

On both occasions it proved a mistake — the only time I’ve seen the tactic really work for Gareth was when England beat Spain away from home in 2018. In the Euro final and against Croatia, England scored early and sat back. This time, if England score, they’ve got to keep taking the game to France.

I don’t mean they should pile forward crazily, just that they should continue playing in the French half, making Mbappé come back and Dembélé come back, and using their energy in ways they don’t want to.

Against the United States we saw a lot of Stones and Maguire passing the ball square to each other and in this game that wouldn’t be the worst thing: it’s important to keep the ball moving, keep it away from the opposition and make them work.

This is England’s first game where they go into it with a genuine fear of being eliminated. They knew it was a possibility against Senegal, but mostly they were confident of winning. But I’ve seen all the clips and photos of the players around the team hotel and they seem relaxed. The experience of previous tournaments is helping the group massively.

Of course, France have experience too — but they will also have that genuine fear of going out. They will have doubts in their minds which, as world champions, they probably very rarely get. England should remember that.

This is about knowing we can damage them as much as they can damage us.’’