Lee Carsley retains unwavering belief in his attacking principles and England’s talent, but he knows he and his players must be better as they seek a reaction to the shock loss against Greece.
Gareth Southgate’s interim successor enjoyed a winning start to life in charge, but the afterglow from last month’s promising 2-0 victories against the Republic of Ireland and Finland disappeared at Wembley.
Thursday’s Nations League clash with Greece began with hopeful expectation and ended with boos from England fans after Vangelis Pavlidis secured a historic, and thoroughly deserved, 2-1 victory deep in stoppage time.
The Euro 2024 runners-up looked rudderless without the ball and toothless with it in an alarming all-round display as Carsley’s decision to deploy five attackers without an out-and-out striker backfired.
“The way I want my teams to play, I want us to attack,” England’s interim manager said.
“And when we had the players we have available, I wanted to try something different. Hindsight is perfect because it never happened.
“It wouldn’t stop me trying something different in the future because I have done OK being like this.
“I had 17, 18, 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on the counter-attack.
“That is definitely not how I want to coach. Nothing changes in that respect.”
While Carsley did not enjoy free-flowing football as a player, he has dealt with enough blows to help retain composure amid the fallout to Thursday’s shambolic performance.
The loss leaves England three points behind Group B2 leaders Greece, where they will begin November’s double-header after rounding off this month’s camp with a key clash away to winless Finland.
“I have had enough setbacks in football to know you are never too far away and I have got to lead by example, and I will,” Carsley said as attention switches to Sunday.
“My belief in this team hasn’t changed. We need to be better, and I include myself in that definitely.
“We tried something tonight, it didn’t come off. It could have gone the other way and we are talking about ‘we’ve found another way of playing’.
“I’m really wary about ruling something out so quickly when we have literally done it for an hour.
“If any fingers get pointed, they’re at me, I wanted to try something, it didn’t come off, but we go again.”
Carsley still feels “there is definitely some potential” to play Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer in the same side moving forward despite Thursday’s discombobulated display.
But belief in their capabilities does not mean he will be brave enough to try it again at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, especially with skipper Harry Kane pushing to start after a knock.
“Probably won’t try that again on Sunday,” Carsley said.
“I have coached enough to know we need to do something different. Had Harry been fit I might have gone down another route.”
Jack Grealish is also pushing to be involved in Finland having joined Kane in sitting out a loss that damaged Carsley’s chance of becoming permanent England manager.
The interim boss sidestepped questions about whether he wants the job full-time after, perhaps tellingly, saying he will “hopefully” return to his job with the England Under-21s after November’s fixtures.
“I know it is a boring answer but nothing changes in my respect,” Carsley said.
“The remit was to do the three camps and nothing has changed. I know it went so well in the last camp, we have had a disappointing night tonight but I don’t get too high or too low.
“I have definitely not felt that (it’s mine to lose). I have tried to be as clear as I can in terms of what I am here to do.
“I have done this interim role (at) three places and tried to be up front as I can.
“I am really privileged and feel really trusted that I am in this position and nothing changes.”
Asked if he was comfortable with swinging opinion about him, he said: “I am old enough to know it is a game of football.
“We have lost a game of football, we are forgetting that Greece were OK, they weren’t here just to lie down. Never too high, never too low.”