Lee Carsley lives for coaching – but anthem fuss shows there’s another side to the English job

Lee Carsley was one of the first men to leave the England dressing room, almost an hour before kick-off. With only the England goalkeepers for company, he stood in the middle of the pitch, arms crossed, watching them work.

Eventually the outfielders and the rest of the staff came out to join him. Carsley stood with his arms behind his back and talked through the drills with Ashley Cole. But he wanted to be involved and so, with just half an hour to go before his England stint began, Carsley stood by a pile of footballs and fired passes to Kobbie Mainoo and Declan Rice so they could pick up the ball on the half turn and drive forward.

As the kick-off drew ever closer, Carsley was still busy with his players. He stood on the edge of the penalty area, wrestling with an attacking player who would then pass him and attempt a cutback. It was only with 20 minutes to go before kick-off that Carsley ran back to the England dressing room.

Carsley, explaining why he doesn’t sing the national anthem on Friday, said that in the period leading up to kick-off he is wary of his “mind wandering” and obsessively thinking about how the game will go and how the opposition will line up. Perhaps that explains why he accidentally walked into the home dugout instead of the away dugout when he came out of the tunnel.

Carsley initially sat in the Irish seats (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

But what is certainly clear is that Carsley lives for this stuff: the little details with players, the precise work of preparation, the tactical scenarios he might encounter. The characterisation of the old regime was that Gareth Southgate was the outward-facing leader, while Steve Holland oversaw the minutiae of the football. Carsley, however, seems to enjoy the football minutiae more than anyone else.

Even at half-time, Carsley, before he went in to talk to his players, could be seen sitting in the dugout with his iPad. He explained afterwards that this is where he keeps all the notes he made during the long pre-match thinking period. “If they change to a four, this is how we can build. If they change to a three, this is how we can build.” So he would refresh his memory on key tactical points before he went in and gave his players a few key tactical messages, just two or three bullet points that they could take to heart.

That’s just one small aspect of what has been a fascinating first look at Carsley in his first game for England. It’s become clear this weekend that however much Carsley talks about how he wants to build on Southgate’s work – he was very keen to say this wasn’t a “fresh start” – the reality is that he’s his own man and will do things his own way.

There was much to like about the football England played in the first half, the small adjustments Carsley had made to his Southgate legacy. Anthony Gordon played as a high, wide winger, running in behind him and his run led to England’s first goal. Declan Rice was freed up to go box-to-box thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold moving behind him into midfield. Rice scored the first goal and set up the second.

Goals from Rice and Grealish gave Carsley victory (Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

Carsley denied that we were following the launch of ‘Carsball’, insisting that it wasn’t his style, it was the players’, so they should get the credit. And yet the fact is that players did things today that they didn’t always do under Southgate – and Carsley is the man responsible for that.

This international window was bound to be a learning experience, as it was Carsley’s first senior role. He looked like he was relishing the occasion, saying it was the proudest day of his career. Just watching him crouched in the technical area showed a man who was living every minute, trying to process every little detail before him on the pitch.

And if the England job was all about player selection, coaching, tactics and systems, then you could argue that Carsley was perfect for the job. Here is someone who understands the system, knows the players and can now fine-tune the team into winners.

But the other lesson from this weekend is that there is another side to being England manager. It means being the public face and voice of English football, and being expected to have a considered opinion on almost everything. It means being comfortable talking about endless topics that have nothing to do with football (you may recall the row over the changed St George’s cross on England collars) and sometimes having to choose your words very carefully under immense pressure.

This was the part of the job that Southgate excelled at exceptionally, perfecting in almost every area, so much so that he quickly became the spokesman for the soul of the national game. (No one expected Roy Hodgson or Fabio Capello to do this.) Carsley has only been in the role for one game, but is already at the centre of a huge controversy over whether he should be allowed to sing the national anthem.

He gave an honest, sincere and entirely justified answer to the question on Friday, but it was also the kind of situation that Southgate was so good at defusing. Instead, it made the front page of two national newspapers and the back of many others, with The Telegraph saying he “cannot expect to lead England” if he doesn’t sing the anthem and a columnist in another right-wing paper, The Daily Mail, calling for him to be sacked before kick-off. It feels like this is the side of the job, being a public spokesman, with every word under scrutiny, that Carsley will have to learn quickly.

Carsley seems to accept that this is part of the job. He also knows that there will be more of these issues in the future. “I think you probably have to accept that with that (job) there is a bit of judgment,” he said when asked if the uproar was worth it. “I don’t feel disadvantaged. We’re moving forward.”

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)