Match Summary

England Team

Switzerland Team

Gareth Southgate made nine changes to his team for this friendly International against Switzerland, following the defeat by Spain.  England were back ‘on the road’ with the game being played at Leicester, but the expectant crowd would have been a little disappointed with, not only the match, but the performance of some of the players.  In the end England did scrape a 1-0 win, but it was a poor game.

Southgate really wanted to give some of the fringe players some game time, especially as several of them had hardly played for their clubs since the start of the new season.  That showed in a first-half that saw England often at sixes and sevens.  Luckily the Swiss were not able to take advantage, despite being given many opportunities by a hesitant England XI.  Early on it was like watching a Keystone Kops film!  It is okay to play out from the back, but only if all the players are tuned in to the idea.

First Jack Butland, returning in goal, tried to pass across goal to Danny Rose, but failed in his attempted pass. The ball was intercepted by Xherdan Shaqiri but somehow Butland managed to block the forward as it deflected away for a goal-kick. A little later and Butland rolled the ball out towards James Tarkowski only to see the Burnley man robbed of the ball all too easily by Denis Zakaria, who then teed up Shaqiri again. The Liverpool man, and former teammate of Butland at Stoke, fired in a shot which scraped the outside of a post when it seemed he must score. That was awful and it was the sort of thing you see in a Sunday League match on the local park.

England just could not get going as Switzerland dominated without seriously threatening again. The match was very scrappy and with Fabian Delph and Reuben Loftus-Cheek obviously lacking in match fitness, the Swiss were able to subdue England all too easily. The best outlet for England came from Danny Rose as the left-back proved to be an energetic performer, something that was absent from some of the other members of the team.

On 16 minutes Eric Dier headed wide from a good position and then a few minutes later Fabian Schar shot wide for the Swiss after good work by Granit Xhaka. Marcus Rashford shot just over from a free-kick and then two minutes later Trent Alexander-Arnold saw a shot saved by Yann Sommer in goal for the visitors. If that makes it sound as though England were on top then over the next few minutes both Mario Gavranovic and Ricardo Rodriguez both forced saves out of Butland. Rose continued to shine and Rashford set him up for an angled shot which was well saved by Sommer and near the end of the half both Welbeck and Loftus-Cheek had shots saved with the final chance of the half falling to Zakaria at the other end, who shot over.

It had been a very disjointed half and, apparently, as Rose revealed afterwards, the players exchanged strong words at the half-time interval. Calming things down, Southgate made some changes to the system at the break in an attempt to counteract the Swiss side’s style of play, and it certainly brought about a better England display after the break. It could hardly have been worse.

The second-half started with the perfect pick-me-up as England took an undeserved lead in the 54th minute. A left-wing corner was over-hit but the ball ran out to Kyle Walker on the far right side. He curled in an excellent cross to the far post where the alert and unmarked Rashford pounced to shoot home from close range. The goal had really come out of nothing but it did have the effect of settling England down a little. Rashford had just previously gone close and he fully justified the trust Southgate gave to the young striker with two goals in two games.

The game then became a little scrappy again so Southgate made a few substitutions just after the hour mark by sending on some of his ‘big guns’. On came Jesse Lingard, John Stones and Harry Kane for Loftus-Cheek, Tarkowski and Welbeck and England improved immediately. A total of 12 substitutions were made in this match by the two sides and that sort of sums up the play we were watching.

Shaqiri saw a shot blocked on 64 minutes and then Dier shot wide six minutes later. There were few moments to thrill the enthusiastic Leicester crowd however as the game trundled along in a similar vein to what had passed before. Dier again went close and near the end two Swiss efforts flew over.

And that was about it, England had avoided the ignominy of losing four on the trot for the first time in their history, but Gareth Southgate would have found little to be encouraged by over this 90 minutes. Welbeck was unlucky to be taken off as he and Rashford did well up front on a measly supply from the midfield. Danny Rose had probably his best game for England until he gave way to Leicester’s own Ben Chilwell for a well-supported England debut in front of his home crowd. As for the rest, this is one of those games that will quickly be forgotten. Still, a win is a win and you can’t say fairer than that.
  

Source Notes