England won 3-1 away at Finland in the UEFA Nations League on Sunday to provisionally pull level on points with Greece in League B Group 2 ahead of their home clash with Republic of Ireland later in the day in Piraeus. The Three Lions have slipped behind the Greeks after their 2-1 loss at Wembley earlier in the week which saw Jude Bellingham’s late equalizer trumped by an even later Vangelis Pavlidis winner as part of an impressive double for Ivan Jovanovic’s men.
Interim English head coach Lee Carsley opted to make six changes to the team which lost to Greece and brought in Dean Henderson, Kyle Walker, Marc Guehi, Angel Gomes, Jack Grealish and Harry Kane for Jordan Pickford, Rico Lewis, Levi Colwill, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Anthony Gordon. With John Stones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice, Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham key figures in both games, Carsley’s potential long-term replacement as England boss will be able to have a good look at many of his potential star talent in competitive action.
Carsley has already been clear on the fact that he is not expecting to stay on full-time in the position and that his interim spell should cover the rest of 2024 as the English Football Association take their time to make a decision regarding Gareth Southgate’s successor: “I was quite surprised after the last camp in terms of the job’s mine and it’s mine to lose and all the rest of it,” he said this international break. “My remit has been clear — I’m doing three camps, there’s three games left and then hopefully I’ll be going back to the 21s. It’s had almost no impact.”
The result of Carsley’s changes for the Finland game was a more clinical and controlled display and final score which was secured by Grealish, Alexander-Arnold and Rice goals before Arttu Hoskonen grabbed a late consolation effort. When combined with the 2-1 loss to Greece, Carsley’s showing so far has been mixed but factor in 2-0 wins over Ireland away and Finland at home means that he has won three of his four games so far with two more to come in the Greeks away and the Irish at home.
He might not be expecting the full-time gig but he is doing a huge service to whoever might get it with the likes of Kobbie Mainoo, Ezri Konsa and Harry Maguire also having seen time under Carsley so that a fuller picture can be developed of where the squad is currently at. Given that the Nations League promotion can be reached even with a top-two finish to get back to League A status, Carsley should not be judged too harshly on that reversal and there is an argument that such a look at a varied pool of players is actually more valuable.
England do need to start winning silverware if they are to deliver on their enormous international potential and the UNL is as good a starting point as any for that but the Three Lions need to move back up to League A first and that remains possible despite these October games bringing a loss. Although the next English head coach is not necessarily expected to be known before the November fixtures which bring 2024 to a close, it is a reasonable expectation that Carsley will know who should be following on from him by then and restoring the team to the top tier in the Nations League would be an ideal way to hand over.
Whoever it ends up being, they will be grateful for the work that has been done and will continue to be done by the interim boss until the end of the year as it will potentially shape the first few squad selections ahead of FIFA 2026 World Cup qualification. That process will start in March and finish the following March with the draw due in December by which point you would imagine that the new manager is in place as Carsley continues to build towards the main gig with his work at under-21 level as Southgate did before he advanced to the main gig.
