by Gareth Southgate made the point to his England players at the start of the week. Remember November 2017, said the manager, when the nation took on Brazil for the last time; the only time, in fact, they did so during his seven and a half years in charge. It was a Wembley friendly, it ended 0-0 and the truth was it felt more like a victory.
What Southgate wanted to highlight to his squad was the world ranking at the time – England were 12th; Brazil in second place – and how, as another showpiece arrives at Wembley on Saturday night, everything has changed. It is now England who can look down on Brazil. They are third on the list; the five-time world champions are fifth.
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“Whenever I’m talking to the team, I’m trying to get them excited about the game ahead and challenge them,” Southgate said. “And also give them confidence in the progress they’ve made as a group. We have overcome many obstacles and created a lot of history in knocking down several fixtures that have been a challenge over the years. I was reading that we have only beaten Brazil four times in 26 games and that is a big challenge for us to put down another marker.”
John Stones remembers the 2017 encounter and especially the mood inside the dressing room. He was one of five players in the squad for this latest assignment – Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Joe Gomez and Marcus Rashford – the others – and Stones talks particularly about the evolution in maturity and belief.
“To a certain extent, we didn’t realize or believe enough that we were better than them at that point,” he said. “But I feel now with the players we have and the experiences we’ve had – being in finals, winning trophies, having tough experiences – we’ll go into this game with the utmost belief that we can come away with victory
“I feel really humbled that we are confident; we are not arrogant. We are excited and believe we can go and win against the best. We’ve talked for years now about joining that elite group or [being] the No 1 team in the world. So this is a great test for us. We had the final at the last Euros, the semi-final of the World Cup in 2018 and we had that real belief in the Qatar World Cup in 2022 [when they reached the quarter-final]. I feel now it’s time for us to get past that stage and get something.”
The Football Association have put the Brazil game – and the one against Belgium at Wembley next Tuesday – in place to get Southgate the best possible matches for the European Championships in the summer. The opposition would not matter much against a past low quality.
Brazil have history and glamour, the iconic yellow shirts synonymous with victory, although they don’t wear them at Wembley, preferring their blue and white change strip. It should be said that England have had the patent on the shirt controversy for the last 24 hours and, also, that this is Brazil at low tide.
As Dorival Júnior prepares for his first game as a manager, the Selection hit by an existential crisis, heavy on questions of identity, Brazilians struggling to see themselves on the team, a wedge between them and the players.
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European clubs have their nation’s stars – distant, disconnected – and Brazil have begun the slog that is South American World Cup qualification with three wins in six games; they are sixth in the table. Dorival also has many injuries – especially to Alisson, Ederson, Marquinhos, Éder Militão, Casemiro and Neymar.
Southgate will certainly want to face Brazil at full strength and will certainly want to work with his best XI. It’s a shame it can’t, with Southgate describing the number of players missing through injury as “the highest we’ve ever had, without question”.
It was hard to escape the focus on who is unavailable. Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka do not mean a much weaker front three although the absence of Luke Shaw is bad now and probably even worse at the Euros; the left back is rated touch and go. Due to the loss of Shaw the team lacks intelligence and balance and it is worse during that period because Kieran Trippier is out.
Southgate also has headaches in midfield and, with Kalvin Phillips out of options due to his poor form, he may have wanted to test Trent Alexander-Arnold alongside Declan Rice. Alexander-Arnold played six times in midfield for Southgate but never against opposition ranked higher than Australia. However, he is injured and Jordan Henderson is unavailable.
Stones, who excelled in a hybrid role for Manchester City, was asked if he would like to play in England’s midfield. “One hundred percent … I’d love to do it,” he replied. “I didn’t talk about it [with Southgate]. Gareth knows how he wants to play, he knows everyone’s characteristics, my characteristics and he watches the games a lot. So if he has any thoughts on that, I’d obviously love to do it. Maybe it’s something we could talk about in the future, I’m not too sure.”
Southgate wants Stones in central defense and there will obviously be opportunities for other players, with Gomez, Ben Chilwell, Conor Gallagher, Ollie Watkins and captain Ivan Toney among those in contention for minutes. Southgate is looking to clear another hurdle. The bigger picture is not inevitable.
