Andy Brassell: Unsettling Rodri and goalkeeper Simon could be key to Euro glory for England

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England must stifle Rodri

If you look at his club efforts, you would think Luis Enrique would have been the coach to take Spain from playing with sterile possession to something more practical and penetrative but that did not come to fruition at the last World Cup.

At Euro 2024, though, Luis de la Fuente has been able to do exactly that.

They have really impressed me, embracing their own identity and keeping the ball effectively to see out trickier parts of matches.

In their win over Italy in the group stage, Spain marked themselves out as a strong side.

But it has been in the knockout stage that they have marked themselves out as potential champions with three very different wins against Georgia, Germany and France.

Managers such as Didier Deschamps and Gareth Southgate believe defensive and reactive football is the way to win major tournaments but it is also about energy conservation.

Spain have previously used possession as a way to moderate the game, thinking that teams cannot score against them if they do not get the ball off them - it is a different type of defensive football.

Not only will Spain have the majority of possession against England in the Euro 2024 final but the reason they have been so good in this tournament is because they control the pace of the game and can also use the full width of the pitch.

If Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal can make the most of space and keep the pitch wide, they have got an opportunity to get at England's back three and could indeed be the most important players in the game.

Rodri, meanwhile, has been influential in the middle throughout the tournament and that is where Jude Bellingham could come into it for England.

In the semi-finals against the Netherlands, Bellingham showed he has uses beyond dribbling around players and scoring goals.

And while sitting on Rodri is not necessarily the answer, Bellingham will be key to hindering his influence.

The decision to take off Phil Foden rather than Bellingham against the Dutch surprised me but Southgate was proved right.

After England scored the winner and tried to play out stoppage time, there was a moment when Bellingham ran down the left, held off Joey Veerman and got fouled at the exact moment he wanted to get fouled.

I don't think Foden could have made that play and it was an example of defensive play in an advanced area of the pitch from Bellingham.

Rodri also flirted with red cards for Manchester City at times in the Premier League last season - he was sent off against Nottingham Forest last autumn - and Bellingham is good at getting under the skins of players.

If he can knock Rodri off his stride with his ability and character, that could make a major difference in this match.

Another area of the pitch in which Spain are yet to come unstuck is in goal.

Goalkeeper Unai Simon has come close to making errors with sloppy play when passing out from the back and he always seems liable to give away a goal. He has done it in the past for Spain.

I would want to press him in the way teams look to press Gianluigi Donnarumma if they're playing Italy.

The problem is we know Harry Kane does not have it in him to do that, so maybe this is a game England win in the final third of the match? Perhaps Ollie Watkins or Ivan Toney are the players to win it from the bench once again.

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Resource management and good coaching as important as ever in international football

Euro 2024 has been as good as it could have been given the physical load on the players.

The standard of football has not been as good as at the 2022 World Cup because that was in the middle of the season and bigger teams like France, Portugal and England have struggled to create decent chances and score.

But above all else this tournament has shown it is not about talent but rather resource management.

Ralf Rangnick showed his ability to instill a collective philosophy in Austria, who could have gone further than the last 16, and Murat Yakin's Switzerland have been outstanding as well.

Southgate has been criticised for not being proactive enough in this tournament but he has used all the elements of his squad in a way that Deschamps has been criticised for not doing for France.

International coaches are often disrespected compared to club coaches and people often debate whether they would have Southgate as manager of a top Premier League team but is an irrelevant question and a totally different job.

International coaches are having to manage tired players without being able to train them hard, indeed without being able to train them at all really.

They have minimal time to work on tactical shape and it is pretty much just about rest and recovery at this stage of the season.

It is a tough job and it is fair to say coaching is as important as it has ever been in international level.

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BetMGM betting sign-up offer: terms and conditions

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The promotion from BetMGM gives you 6x £10 free bets to place across racing, football and other relevant markets. Some betting tokens are only applicable to certain sports, so it’s worth taking a minute to read through the T&Cs of this offer.

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Andy Brassell

Published on 13 July 2024inEuro 2024