Lee Carsley passes first England test with flying colours to silence the noise over national anthem drama

HE walked straight out of the tunnel and sat on the wrong bench, then stood tight-lipped throughout God Save The King.

But when Lee Carsley’s England team strut around giving a passable impression of Brazil at the 1970 World Cup, then frankly who cares?

They say that managing England is the impossible job, that the politics, the media glare and the millions of armchair critics make it a thankless task.

Yet if England are winning and playing thrilling football – as they did in the first half of this Nations League clash – then the rest is all irrelevant white noise.

Carsley has navigated his first serious sewage storm, his first public embarrassment and his first match in charge.

And the interim boss has emerged with flying colours, leading England to their first win in Dublin since 1964. 

On the eve of his maiden outing, there had been hysterical calls for Carsley to be sacked before he had even taken charge of a match due to his refusal to sing the national anthem.

It was me who asked Birmingham-born Carsley that question – given his previous life as a midfielder who won 40 caps for the Republic of Ireland, now taking charge of his native country for the first time at senior level in Dublin, of all places.

But the idea that his refusal to sing a song should make him ineligible for the job of managing a football team is patent nonsense.

Like approximately half of people in an increasingly globalised society, Carsley – whose paternal grandparents were Irish – was eligible to play international sport for more than one nation.

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And like most such people, he has genuine allegiance to both countries, complicating matters such as anthems.

Carsley had never previously sung either, as an Ireland player or as England’s Under-21 boss.

His claim that it was all a matter of focusing on the match ahead didn’t sound entirely convincing but the whole farago was soon reduced to storm-in-a-teacup proportions as soon as his England started playing with purpose and verve.   

Carsley is clearly a gifted coach, who led the Under-21s to glory at last year’s European Championships without conceding a goal, and already has the seniors purring with positivity.

After 26 minutes of this match, England were two goals to the good, the scorers were Irish hate figures Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, and Carsley’s side boasted 86 per-cent possession.

The farcical pre-match sight of Carsley sitting on the Irish bench, then being tapped on the shoulder by an official who reminded him that he was on the away side now, was nothing more than a comedy meme.

Perhaps Carsley had simply been ‘too focused on the match’.

While the Irish were poor, their FIFA ranking of 58 sees them only six places below Slovenia – with whom England bored out a turgid goalless draw at the Euros before Gareth Southgate was pelted with beer cups by Three Lions fans.

Before we get too carried away about the idea of Carsley transforming England, let’s not pretend that Southgate’s team, who reached two Euros finals and one World Cup semi-final, never played entertaining football.

Against Holland in this summer’s semi-final, Senegal at the last World Cup, Ukraine at the previous Euros and in competitive wins against Italy, Germany and Spain – to name just a few – they performed style as well as achieving impressive results.

But England did often lack risk-taking bravery and there was a sense of world-class footballers playing beneath themselves – especially in Germany this summer.

So this was a marked improvement, after just three days of training under Carsley.

Rice and Grealish stole the show, thriving on the predictable hostility from home supporters, after their switches of international allegiance from Ireland to England.

You simply don’t become £100m footballers if you can’t handle people being a bit rude to you.        

Rice, branded a snake on one fan’s banner and loudly accused of indulging in one-in-a-bed romps seconds before he lashed home an emphatic opener, was magnificent.

Grealish, enjoying the freedom of the No 10 role in the absence of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, steered home the second and played with sheer devilment.

Both goals had Carsley’s stamp on them. Trent Alexander-Arnold in his Liverpool role as a right-back who drifts into midfield, was in the centre of the park when he played the gorgeous pass which led to Rice’s opener.

And England’s second was a joyous rapid-fire pass-and-move affair, with Rice the architect and Grealish the executioner.

It became much more scruffy after the break as Ireland played with greater purpose but the job was done by then – and nobody was worrying about singing or seating arrangements.

Carsley is a fine tactician and man-manager and he will be relatively cheap – so the FA would love him to pass this six-match autumn audition for the permanent job.

The trouble is that none of England’s opponents – Ireland, Finland and Greece – are ranked in the world’s top 50, so there will be no elite tests to judge him on.

Still, at least we can forget about the anthems now.

When England’s football is singing, who gives a stuff whether Carsley does?

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk