Growing Pains
The Search for England 2.0
Georgia Stanway placed the football on the penalty spot and took a few steps back.
The World Cup Group D clash between England and Haiti had entered its 27th minute, and the scoreline read 0–0.
Flashback to a year ago, England were on top of the world.
Having gotten off to an inauspicious start, the Lionesses’ EURO campaign ended with a hard-fought 2–1 victory over reigning champions in Germany in the final. Witnessed by some 87,000 people in a sold-out Wembley, England were crowned European champions for the first time on home soil, and a new footballing superpower was born.
There was an air of invincibility around England, and after prevailing over the USA — hitherto the hegemon of women’s football — in an October friendly, there was little doubt that the Lionesses were heading into the World Cup as favorites.
Then it fell apart.
Five weeks after the friendly, England’s star player Beth Mead tore her ACL in the dying minutes of Arsenal’s WSL game with Manchester United.
Having recorded six goals and five assists across six games, Mead was England’s standout player at the EURO and was indeed recognized as Player of the Tournament. In red-hot form for club and country, the Arsenal forward would miss out on the Ballon d’Or Féminin to Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas only by a hair.
Mead’s injury, as it turned out, was merely the first blow of many that England manager Sarina Wiegman would be dealt.
Playing against the same opponent five months later, Leah Williamson would also tear her ACL. One of the best ballplaying defenders in the world, Williamson’s composure and leadership made her as indispensable to England as Mead.
Having already lost both her best player and her captain, Wiegman was dealt yet another blow when Fran Kirby — whose genius has shone so brightly for club and country in the years past — was also ruled out of the World Cup following knee surgery.
The only piece of good news she had in the lead-up to the World Cup was that Millie Bright — the steel to Williamson’s silk in England’s central defense — would recover from her own knee operation just in time for the tournament.
England 1.0 was a side basked in immortal glory, but the brightest stars burn out the fastest.
Three weeks after that glorious afternoon at Wembley, Ellen White announced her retirement, bowing out on the highest of highs.
Though she was 33 with her influence clearly on the wane, White was part of the starting eleven that Wiegman famously used for every game at the EURO. Her retirement brought that iconic lineup to an end, and Wiegman’s England began its long, painful evolution toward its second iteration.
Alessia Russo — the super sub who scored four goals at the EURO, including that famous backheel goal against Sweden — was the obvious candidate to replace White, but Wiegman would give her nod to Rachel Daly.
Though used as a left back during the EURO, Daly’s natural position is up front, leading the line as the number 9. As Carla Ward — who signed Daly for her club a week after the final — famously declared, “Rachel Daly is not a defender, not anywhere near Aston Villa.”
The dearth of left-footed defenders in England’s talent pool meant she continued to play in defense for her country. But as the 22/23 campaign went on and Villa’s new number 8 racked up goals for her club, scoring thirty times across all competitions over the course of the season, Wiegman took note.
Three months after Ellen White hung up her boots, Rachel Daly wore the number 9 shirt for England for the first time in a friendly with Norway. And with her long-awaited move up front, a new left back was needed.
Enter Alex Greenwood.
Though long converted into a center back for her club, Greenwood is arguably a better fit for the left side of England’s defense than Daly. Her versatility notwithstanding, England’s now-number 9 is a forward at heart and as such, naturally inclined to push on and impact the game in the attacking third.
The presence of Lucy Bronze — a flying right back who has been the mainstay of the Lionesses’ backline for the past decade — meant that Daly’s profile posed something of a dilemma.
If Bronze and Daly were both given full license to play their natural attacking game, then England would be vulnerable to quick counterattacks down the flanks.
But if either — especially Daly — was instructed to play more conservatively, then it would defeat the purpose of deploying such adventurous full backs.
Greenwood represents the yin to Bronze’s yang, ensuring that England would not lack the numbers to defend transitions even if the right back was on the other end of the pitch, all the while offering plenty of attacking threat of her own with her ability to carry the ball forward and play line-breaking passes.
And just as Greenwood is a very different type of player from Daly, the same can be said of Ella Toone and Fran Kirby.
The source code of England 1.0 was written for Kirby, with White sitting on the shoulder of the last defender to pin the center backs and both wingers — Lauren Hemp on the left and Beth Mead on the right — hugging the touchlines to draw the full backs out wide, decongesting the center of the pitch and opening up a gap in the opposition’s defensive third for Kirby.
The enganche is a classic 10 who operates in that gap, receiving the ball from deep and slipping runners ahead of her in behind opposition defense. The Argentine maestro Juan Román Riquelme embodied the enganche, sitting in the hole and creating from there — the hook that joined the midfield to the attack.
But Kirby is more than just a hook.
A wizard of a player whose genius you can but put your hands up and applaud, Kirby possesses the vision, technique, and killer pass of an enganche as well as all the instinct, movement, and clinicality of a poacher, as ruthless as she is elegant.
Having been deployed as the 10 as well as a false nine and off the right, Kirby excels whether she is asked to sit in the hole and play in teammates or attack the box and put the ball past the goalkeeper herself.
Chelsea’s all-time top goalscorer, Kirby is a trequartista — one of the same ilk as your Kaka’s and Messi’s who are capable of single-handedly pulling the opposition apart, sublime in every facet of attacking play and simply unstoppable.
Long troubled by injuries and health issues, Kirby’s 21/22 season was cut short by a serious fatigue problem. Fortunately, she was able to return to fitness just in time to play at the EURO, netting two goals and three assists, including a wonder strike against Northern Ireland that was shortlisted for Goal of the Tournament.
Returning to Chelsea as a freshly-minted European champion, Kirby began her 22/23 campaign in red-hot form, finding the back of the net in each of the defending champions’ first three WSL games.
Though she missed the September international break with a minor knock, Kirby returned to the Lionesses’ starting eleven for the titanic clash with the USA and the draw with the Czech Republic in October.
That was the last time she would play for England.
Sustaining a knee injury in February, Kirby was forced to undergo surgery, ruling her out of the World Cup.
Just as Russo was waiting in the wings for White, Toone — the other half of that iconic super sub duo — readily stepped up.
Indeed, as Kirby has only made two appearances for England since last summer, Toone has fast become a mainstay of the Lionesses’ lineup, starting in ten of England’s twelve games from the World Cup qualifier with Austria in September to the sendoff game with Portugal in July.
That does not, however, mean that the Lionesses have gotten used to life without Kirby, much less that they’re ready for life after her.
Kirby was at the heart of Wiegman’s England 1.0 but Toone is a very different kind of player.
Raumdeuter was the term Thomas Müller coined to define himself and the same term Toone’s club manager Marc Skinner used to describe his number 10.
Noted for his intelligence and mental resilience, Müller has a remarkable ability for finding that pocket of space in the final third where he can do the most damage — whether central or out wide, inside the box or beyond the arc. Always in the right place at the right time, Müller is unflashy yet efficient — almost stereotypically so.
Combined with a hunger for goal and an intuitive final ball, it is not difficult to see why he has been indispensable to Bayern Munich for the past decade.
Not unlike Müller, Toone has a knack for finding that pocket of space in the final third. And taking her clutch finishing and ability to cross into account, Toone is a dangerous final third operator — at her best, that is.
But England’s new number 10 has not been at her best in a long time.
Coming off an iconic EURO campaign, Toone appeared on the cusp of stardom. And with Kirby’s fitness struggles, she naturally stepped into that 10 role.
But one cannot talk about Toone in isolation. The rest of the midfield must be accounted for too.
England sets up in a 4–2–3–1 on paper with Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway behind the 10. As discussed in my last article, Walsh is a regista while Stanway is a classic English box-to-box midfielder. Utterly dominant in the second phase, Walsh is capable of single-handedly running the game from deep, freeing up Stanway to advance higher into the right half-space.
To accommodate Stanway’s advanced positioning, the number 10 would move into the left half-space and England’s shape would resemble a 4–3–3 far more closely than a 4–2–3–1.
This suits Kirby just fine since the left-sided positioning allows her to cut inside onto her right foot while facing the entire pitch, giving her access to all the angles to pick out that threaded pass. And as Kirby loves attacking the box, the left side also offers her the perfect shooting angles from her stronger right foot.
But this left 10 role is a decidedly poor fit for Toone.
Lacking Kirby’s ability to wiggle out of tight spaces, Toone’s playing style is distinctly less silky and more direct. As such, she is best high in the right half-space where she can receive facing the goal and either play the through ball or attempt a shot from range before defenders have the time to close in.
The left side of the pitch offers her more angles, but as these angles are less direct, they prevent her from playing her natural game.
On the right, Toone is audacious and decisive. But the on the left, she is a shadow of her best self. That number 10 role in England’s setup suits Kirby to a tee, but it could not be more different for Toone. Kirby also had advantages not available to Toone — namely, the presence of Beth Mead on the right.
It has already been said that Hemp and Mead were both instructed to hug the touchlines to open up the half-spaces for Kirby and Stanway, but Mead is a very different kind of player compared to Hemp and indeed every other winger Wiegman could call upon.
Mead started out as a striker and was a mightily prolific one, scoring 12 goals in 14 games in her debut WSL season with Sunderland and becoming the youngest ever WSL Golden Boot winner as well as the WSL Player’s Player of the Year. The presence of Dutch superstar Vivianne Miedema at her new club Arsenal meant Mead was forced out wide, and though she has since mastered playing off the right, she never lost that poacher instinct.
Compared to Wiegman’s other wide options, Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly are more traditional wingers who prefer to hug the touchline then get past their marker and put in crosses. Nikita Parris, on the other hand, excels at attacking the box and scoring goals like Mead but is less adept at operating out wide.
Indeed, what made Mead such a vital cog of Wiegman’s machine was not just her quality, but the uniqueness of her profile, combining both the one-on-one threat of a touchline winger and the box threat of a poacher.
Accordingly, though Mead would start out wide like Hemp, she was given the license to come inside and attack the box aggressively.
As such, Mead is not just another touchline winger, but an inside forward capable of creating chances both for others and herself as well as converting them. Her tendency to attack the box from the opposite side made her the perfect foil to Kirby, and combined with White’s presence inside the box, Kirby and Hemp had no shortage of targets for their crosses and through balls.
Mead was the crucial second striker that gave England’s attack balance between ball-to-feet creators and runners in behind, and her injury was more than just a setback — it caused a systematic malfunction that England 1.0 simply could not recover from.
Just as Toone is a very different kind of player from Kirby, Kelly is similarly different from Mead. Few are as good at traditional wing play as Kelly, but England already has a traditional winger in Hemp. An inside forward is needed to complete the blueprint of England 1.0, and Kelly is decidedly not that.
Though a world-class player herself, Kelly’s introduction meant that England now had one too many ball-to-feet creators and one too few runners.
Without Mead’s runs into the box, England’s attack became one-dimensional and the center forward became isolated far too often. All defenders had to do was mark out the lone striker — whether Daly or Russo — and the Lionesses would be defanged.
This poses a problem for Toone since she would find her targets wanting even if she manages to receive on the left, hold off defenders, turn around and play the through ball to the far post.
She could, of course, simply play the switch to Kelly on the touchline where she often has no trouble beating her full back to put in the cross. But Kelly would just be facing the same problem — that there are not enough targets for her crosses.
The loss of Mead has knock-on effects elsewhere on the pitch too.
Mead, Stanway, and Bronze had an intuitive understanding on the right-hand side of England’s 4–3–3.
If Mead was wide then Stanway would push higher into the half-space and Bronze would stay deeper to provide cover; if Mead came inside then either Stanway or Bronze would overlap while the other would position themselves more narrowly; and if Mead dropped deep then both Stanway and Bronze would advance — a perfect triangle at all times.
Many have noted that Mead’s tendency to come inside and attack the box made her the perfect partner for Bronze, but her movement similarly enabled Stanway to play her full attacking game, driving forward with the ball and crashing the box.
The introduction of Kelly scrambled those dynamics.
Whereas Mead often vacates the wide right channel, Kelly occupies it, thus blocking off space for Bronze’s overlapping runs. If the right back is to play her natural attacking game then she has to resort to underlapping, which would prevent Stanway from doing so.
This does not mean that Stanway and Bronze cannot play with Kelly — they can, but the dynamics have to be different.
With Kelly on the touchline, Stanway could be instructed to attack the box more aggressively to make up for the loss of Mead’s dynamism with Bronze inverting to cover for her. Alternatively, Bronze could be instructed to make underlapping runs into the half-space and play crosses to the far post with Stanway sitting deeper for more security.
But rather than new dynamics developing, confusion has reigned. As such, Stanway has crashed the box less often while Bronze no longer overlaps as much as she used to, leaving Kelly lacking support far too often, and England’s right hook now amounts to little more than a gentle tap.
Leah Williamson’s injury made things worse still.
There are not enough superlatives for Williamson’s ballplaying ability, but she is an underrated defender too. Indeed, she complemented Millie Bright in ways more than one.
Vulnerable to a high press even on her stronger right side, Bright would have been relentlessly targeted on the left. Accordingly, Williamson and all her technical excellence was deployed on the left side of central defense as often is the case with two right-footed center backs.
But this had drawbacks too.
As covered in the last section, Bronze pushed on very aggressively to take advantage of the space vacated by Mead and in doing so, left acres of space behind her. To ensure that England would not get caught out by quick counterattacks, it was necessary to deploy someone capable of covering the space in behind Bronze on the right side of central defense.
Though Bright usually performs well when asked to defend out wide, such task is not a perfect fit for her skillset and indeed, her ability to defend the box and win aerial duels makes her more valuable central. Williamson, on the other hand, is the more mobile one of the duo and possesses the positional intelligence to step out and intercept long balls forward.
In the event, Wiegman opted for the best of both worlds— Williamson would start on the left side of central defense but shuffle across to the right to cover for Bronze if needed.
And Bronze was not the only one to benefit either. Indeed, so potent was the threat of Williamson’s line-breaking passes that teams would sit off England’s first line in an effort to deny her space to play those passes into. This incidentally benefited Bright, who although is not best on the ball under pressure, is nevertheless fully capable of carrying the ball forward and playing progressive passes when left in space.
Having already lost Mead with Kirby in doubt as well, the loss of Williamson was yet another body blow for the Dutch mastermind.
But unlike with Mead and Kirby, there is a like-for-like replacement for Williamson in the squad — namely, Alex Greenwood.
An outstanding progressive carrier and passer with excellent mentality and ample leadership credentials, Greenwood and Williamson are eerily similar in profile. And with Williamson out of the World Cup, Greenwood was the natural choice to step into the left side of central defense.
But just as it is impossible to replace Mead and Kirby, the same can be said for Williamson.
The scarcity of left-footers means that right-footers tend to be more adept at playing on their weaker side, having likely filled in there at various points in their careers, while the same is far less likely to be true for left-footers.
Greenwood — being the only left-footed defender in England’s World Cup squad — is living proof of this scarcity, and as such, though her left-footedness makes her the intuitive choice as the left-sided center back, it also prevents her from shuffling across to the right to cover for Bronze the way Williamson did.
Moreso, if Alex Greenwood is replacing Leah Williamson, then who is replacing Rachel Daly?
Wiegman most likely did not have an answer to that herself.
It must be remembered that Williamson tore her ACL very late into the season and that England only had a solitary friendly left to play before they were due to fly out to Australia.
Without her captain and with only the sendoff game with Portugal to test her new-look defense, Wiegman opted to see what her bench could do. Jess Carter and Esme Morgan were given the nod to fill in for Williamson and the still-injured Bright, while Greenwood remained on the left with Bronze on the right as always.
The new-look defense worked surprisingly well.
Carter is an excellent one-on-one defender capable of defending large spaces out wide in transition, while Morgan is every bit the progressive passer Greenwood is. Though both relatively young and without an abundance of senior international football experience, Carter and Morgan possess excellent mentality and have played their fair share of big games at the club level.
Greenwood tucked into the backline as the third center back in buildup, allowing Bronze to push on and play her natural attacking game. With Greenwood on the left and her Manchester City teammate Morgan on the right, England had two technically outstanding wide center backs, guaranteeing them plenty of options for ball progression however tightly Walsh is marked, while Bronze’s overlapping runs forward allowed Lauren James and all her technical excellence to come inside and operate as a right-sided 10, making up for some of the creativity missing with Kirby.
Greenwood assumed Williamson’s role as the primary ball progressor from the back without missing a beat while the young guns more than held their own, with Carter impervious in one-on-ones as always while Morgan broke Portugal’s lines without breaking a sweat even under pressure.
The left back’s deeper positioning also ensured England would have a numerical advantage over Portugal’s front two whether in buildup or defensive transitions, and though England was up against a dangerous Portugal attack without either Williamson or Bright, they never looked in real danger of conceding in the 45 minutes the Greenwood-Carter-Morgan-Bronze backline was on the pitch.
But Bright’s imminent return meant that this backline was always going to be temporary, and that as well as it performed against Portugal, no one was expecting it to start against Haiti.
Greenwood — pound-for-pound England’s best defender going into the World Cup — was expected to play as the left-sided center back to reinforce a central defense that was suddenly looking vulnerable with Williamson out and Bright just back from injury.
Carter was expected to play as the left back as she’d done during the April international break and Morgan — whom few were expecting to even be called up — was not expected to see significant minutes.
Wiegman — as she often does — spurned conventional wisdom.
Bright returned to the lineup as expected, but Carter was to partner her from the left side of central defense while Greenwood remained out wide.
The Lionesses had not scored since Toone put them ahead in the Finalissima with Brazil some three and a half months prior and Russo started up front in the place of Daly.
The closest of friends since meeting at an England youth camp at 12, Russo and Toone have a symbiotic relationship on the pitch and their chemistry produced crucial goals for England at the EURO. With her attack in dire need of rejuvenation, Wiegman turned to her trusty super sub duo once more.
But Mead was still missing.
No amount of chemistry was a substitute for that second striker and Russo predictably found herself badly lacking support.
England’s problems up front remained unresolved, but Wiegman’s shuffling of her defense created new ones at back. The Dutch mastermind had had to make many calls since taking over the Lionesses in September 2021 and rarely got any wrong.
But this time, she erred.
Summer 2022 had been defined by hope and optimism, but the mood as summer 2023 approached was one of impending doom.
That air of invincibility around England was long gone and with three of their best players out of action, few were expecting the Lionesses to even make a deep run into the knockout rounds, let alone go all the way.
The previous summer’s success had once spurred the Lionesses on, but it now seemed to be weighing them down. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and England’s crown was heavy indeed.
That invincible EURO side cast a long shadow and the burden of expectations became impossible to bear even for the epitome of unflappability that was Sarina Wiegman.
Would she have started Bright right away if Williamson had not torn her ACL? Or would she have eased her back in?
A great, unknowable question.
Williamson was not supposed to miss the World Cup. She was supposed to lead her country to even newer heights. But she was missing. And with their captain out, Bright’s experience, leadership, and sheer dominance inside the box took on newfound importance to an England side that was missing four of its starters from that glorious summer past.
Bright had not played in four months and match sharpness only ever returns slowly following knee injuries. Though she was cleared to play, England’s captain for the tournament was clearly and understandably off her pace.
To compensate for Bright’s lack of match fitness, Wiegman flipped the dynamics at back.
Bronze was to be more conservative and act as the third center back in the first phase to ensure Bright had plenty of protection between her and Carter, while Greenwood would push higher and operate in the manner of a more traditional attacking full back to compensate for Bronze’s deeper positioning.
But therein lay the problem.
Greenwood is exceptionally good at going forward — for a center back.
As a full back, she does not offer the penetrative runs Bronze is so adept at in the final third, and England’s attack — already blunt without Mead and Kirby — became blunter still without Bronze on the overlap.
And as England’s struggles in front of goal continued, Bronze’s instinct as a flying full back took over. She pushed forward to support Kelly, overlapping and underlapping in a bid to unlock Haiti’s defense and in doing so, left her own defense exposed.
Technically and athletically outstanding, Bronze was among the very best in her prime, but her prime is well behind her.
Long troubled by knee injuries, Bronze underwent a knee operation in August 2021 that sidelined her for much of the 21/22 season. Though she went on to win the EURO as well as her fourth UWCL title with Barcelona after recovering from that surgery, she was never able to reach the same level again.
As dangerous as she remains in the final third, Bronze can no longer beat defenders the way she used to. Moreover, she can no longer get back to her own defensive third quickly in transition, and the space in behind her now poses a major vulnerability.
The protection around Bright was gone, and Haiti targeted her repeatedly, rapidly attacking the space in behind Bronze to exploit Bright’s lack of sharpness, only to crash head-first into the moving wall that was Jess Carter.
Shuffling across to the right whenever Bronze and Bright were caught out, Carter singlehandedly plugged the gaping hole in England’s defense.
Wiegman’s decision to rush Bright back left England painfully vulnerable in transition, and it was only thanks to Carter’s heroics that the Lionesses held onto a precarious stalemate.
England arrived in Australia under siege, understrength, and underwhelming, while Haiti was a quality side determined to make something of their first World Cup. And with an astute setup to exploit England’s vulnerabilities down the flanks and the discipline to execute that game plan, the Carribean side had all the makings of a giant slayer.
Norway had been felled by co-hosts New Zealand in the very first game of the tournament and it looked like the opening fixture of Group D was headed in the same direction.
That was, until an outswing corner from Chloe Kelly in the 25th minute led to a handball and a penalty.
Nothing in life is certain, but Georgia Stanway from the spot is as close as it gets.
Having scored the penalty that clinched Bayern Munich all three points in their Frauen-Bundesliga game against Wolfsburg back in March — and with it, the Bavarians’ second league title in seven years, Stanway is among the best in the business. And as she stepped up to the spot, it appeared that the football gods had finally granted England a reprieve.
Or had they?
Stanway struck the ball, and promptly sent it into Kerly Théus’ gloves.
When it rains, it pours, and England’s roof was missing.
But that’s the thing about football — it comes with one twist after another.
VAR came to England’s rescue, and the penalty was to be retaken with Théus having come off her line early.
England’s number 8 squared up against Haiti’s number 1 once more and fired her penalty at the same bottom left corner, smashing it into the back of the net this time.
Eight for eight from the spot, Stanway’s perfect record for England lived on.
Though Haiti would come at them again and again until the full-time whistle, England’s defense held on with Bright slowly but surely growing into the game.
The Lionesses got their win, but it was anything but pretty.
Jess Carter and luck powered England through their opening fixture, but it would take more — far more — for the Lionesses to get past the heavyweights.
England 1.0 was at its breaking point, and the next game would shatter it into a million pieces.
Continued in Like a Phoenix Reborn: The Death and Rebirth of Sarina Wiegman’s England
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