After a step in the right direction on the pitch, Lee Carsley somehow put his foot back in it.
That description is perhaps a little harsh for an interim manager guiding a team through a decent spell so far, but it is getting increasingly confounding as to why he keeps going back and forth as regards the biggest question of all: whether he wants the job.
In Helsinki, on what should have been a comfortable night after a 3-1 win over Finland, Carsley made it more awkward by first saying that the England job “deserves a world-class coach who has won trophies”.
That evidently isn’t yet him, which was why this line was initially perceived to be Carsley indicating the full-time appointment indeed won’t be him.
When asked whether he was ruling himself out, though, he said “definitely” not.
If it is getting tedious to hear about this, the discussion is only happening because his comments keep inviting more questions. It is like Carsley is constantly opening new avenues of discussion, in the same way Trent Alexander-Arnold keeps opening up defences. Given how important that discussion is to the real business of the 2026 World Cup, too, it is often more interesting than Nations League B2.
The wonder is why Carsley doesn’t stick to a clear line and get on with it, since that is obviously what he wants. He doesn’t need to make these new statements that only raise eyebrows.
It’s all the more surprising because, in a departure from a statesman like Gareth Southgate, Carsley is a coach who wants to coach. And, if he doesn’t have a clear line on the future, he evidently has a clear idea for this team.
What he is trying to do in this Nations League campaign is work out the little nuances that eventually complete that idea. That is the main reason England were not as convincing in this international break than the last, although it has probably served to add a bit more doubt as to whether he will eventually get the job. His public comments have then further diluted that.
Is that the greater scale of the job getting to him when he has to speak in public? Is it that a humble man like him doesn’t think he has the clout to just go out and say “I want it”? Here, he’d only go as far as saying he wants to keep an “open mind”.
He has at least shown that with the team, too. While the experimentation so far hasn’t gone perfectly, it has ultimately given him more options, as well as a greater idea of what works. Alexander-Arnold is evidently the team’s main creator, even if it is from a notional left-back role. Opening goalscorer Jack Grealish may be the best suited to Carsley’s football of all the creators he possesses. Angel Gomes, meanwhile, increasingly looks essential.
It is a slightly odd situation. In terms of pure talent and basic status, Gomes is way down England’s squad list. They have so many more stars ahead of him. And yet he might be one of the most important players tactically, who could even be unique. Carsley’s Pep Guardiola-influenced positional-pressing game needs a midfield passer that every other position can fit around, and Gomes is one of the few who can play that role.
The Lille midfielder immediately imposed order on the team, which was one aspect that was so markedly different to Thursday night’s chaos against Greece. It isn’t all those steady move-building balls, either. The sumptuous little pass through for Grealish’s goal also showed an elevated dimension to his game. That was Carsley football at its best.
It isn’t necessarily perfect, mind. One pass at the other end showed that. Gomes gave the ball for one of many Finnish attacks, admittedly illustrating he was far from the only player culpable. And, really, it comes down to the maths. Carsley would rather a player that gets 95 of 100 such passes right than someone who tries less, or, worse, just doesn’t have that sort of game.
It pointed to the main features of England’s game. One of the most common sights under Carsley has been Gomes’s little passes, and they are complemented by Alexander-Arnold being given licence for his full range of deliveries. While Gomes plays it short, the Liverpool star plays it wherever he needs. There was a drilled slide-rule pass, a number of arched cross-field balls and then a David Beckham-type cross.
That was all distilled into a Beckham-type free-kick, as Alexander-Arnold sealed the points with that brilliant strike. It was perfect.
This all came from a surprise start at left-back, although Carsley had signalled this was possible at the squad announcement last week. That is if it can even be called left-back. Alexander-Arnold was given full licence to roam and play-make from there. It went beyond a full-back coming inside. It was a creator roaming.
The only wonder is whether it can work as well against a better side.
That fluidity and variety that Carsley allows fostered another feature to his matches, after all, that seems to be a characteristic regardless of the opposition or even the pattern of play. His team cough up a number of chances.
That’s why Gomes’s back pass on its own wasn’t such a concern. It was more that England’s openness makes any such moment look much worse. Finland’s Fredrik Jensen alone missed two fine chances. The hosts, who are a very moderate side, could have been ahead first.
It’s impossible not to wonder what a Spain or a France would do to that backline, if Carsley does indeed get the job full-time and tries to play in a similar way.
Arttu Hoskonen even capitalised on one of those chances from a set-piece, so it was just as well that England had cut loose a bit. Declan Rice followed up Grealish’s early strike and Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick with a fine flick in from an Ollie Watkins cross.
The Aston Villa forward and Noni Madueke had by then come on to give England more pace. That was maybe one quality that had been missing from the early play, and points to another issue that Carsley has to figure out. He opted to leave Phil Foden out and restore both Grealish and Harry Kane, given Bukayo Saka was also out.
Grealish clearly works so well for him, and the expression he enjoys under Carsley was seen in that goal. Beside him, though, there was that feeling that England still had one number-10 too many. It is telling that there wasn’t much to say about either Jude Bellingham or Cole Palmer. The former had a few nice passes and touches, but didn’t hurt Finland in the way he can at his best. Palmer had one shot, in another largely ineffective performance for England.
Carsley has issues to figure out there. In the meantime, he could do with figuring out a clear line on what next. That might be the best thing for allowing him to focus on the coaching he really wants.