Republic of Ireland v England: Nations League – live | Nations League

There’s a banner in the crowd aimed at Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, “THE SNAKES,” it says, “ARE BACK.” Oof.

Lee Carsley has a word with ITV. “The expectancy is high,” he says, while hastening to add that he’s only had three days’ training with the players. “We’ve picked an attacking team, very attacking team.”

Then ITV shows what happened when Carsley took his seat in the dugout. He went to the Irish one.

Some more balls. “In the spirit of Private Eye,” says Andy Flintoff, “maybe we should try to persuade Chris Coleman to take permanent charge, then the style of play would be ‘Colemanball’, and the world would fold in on itself.” Nice one.

And here comes another tart email. “With Jordan Pickford and Anthony Gordon in the XI and John Stones sitting next to Lee Carsley on the bench,” asks Gary Naylor, “do Everton have the most club connections to this Brave New England? If so, there’s a desperate 92 minutes on its way to you right now, culminating in two late goals in the 93rd and 95th to lose the game.” Haha.

“It will be followed by an interview with a bald manager saying that he’s disappointed with the result, nevertheless going on to explain how they were in the game for long periods, but have to cut out the individual errors. He’ll finish by saying that they’re missing a couple of key players but that the squad is good enough to cope with that. [Spoiler – it isn’t].”

In case you didn’t click on this at the top of the page … Barney Ronay has been pondering Lee Carsley, as only he can.

The next email contains a drop of vinegar. “In an effort to stop the birth of the appallingly asinine yet inevitable term Carsleyball,” says Paul Griffin, “I am frantically lobbying the FA for Kevin Ball to get the gig, just so pundits can’t refer to his style of play as Ballball.

“Or, perhaps an even better choice to stop these dumb, tired portmanteaux cliches gaining further currency would be to hire long-retired Bournemouth defender Chris Foote. The campaign – or perhaps campaignball – starts here. Or hereball.”

Ha. The players who know Carsley from the U21s call him Cars, so I was on the point of floating Carsball.

“Balance” is the header on the first email. “Looking at England’s three attacking midfielders,” says Mark Beadle, “wouldn’t Saka – Eze – Grealish/Gordon make more sense? Looks a bit unbalanced to me.” Yes, perhaps.

The predicted line-ups I saw this morning got the XI spot-on, so there must have been a clear steer. But they didn’t all agree on where Grealish and Gordon would go. My 4-2-3-1 is just an uneducated guess. It could be a 4-3-3 or 4-1-2-3 with Rice as the sole pivot, Mainoo and Grealish ahead of him, and Saka-Kane-Gordon as the front three. That way, Grealish and Gordon would both get to play on the left. But Eze is such a classy player that it would be surprise not to see him come off the bench.

Heimir Hallgrímsson is going up in the world. He’s gone from managing Iceland (currently no. 71 in the Fifa men’s rankings) to Jamaica (59) to Ireland (58). England, by the way, are no.4.

Just in case you don’t know much about Hallgrímsson, here’s Barry to mark your card.

England (possible 4-2-3-1) Jordan Pickford; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harry Maguire, Marc Guehi, Levi Colwill; Kobbie Mainoo, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, Anthony Gordon; Harry Kane.

Subs: Nick Pope, Dean Henderson, Tino Livramento, Rico Lewis, John Stones, Ezri Konsa, Conor Gallagher, Angel Gomes, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Gibbs-White, Jarrod Bowen.

Ireland (possible 4-4-1-1) Caoimhin Kelleher; Seamus Coleman, Dara O’Shea, Nathan Collins, Matt Doherty; Chiedozie Ogbene, Will Smallbone, Jayson Molumby, Robbie Brady; Sammie Szmodics; Adam Idah.

Subs: Mark Travers, Max O’Leary, Callum O’Dowda, Andrew Omobamidele, Alan Browne, Jake O’Brien, Jason Knight, Liam Scales, Kasey McAteer, Callum Robinson, Troy Parrott, Evan Ferguson.

Lee Carsley said he didn’t see this as a fresh start, but as a chance to build on England’s progress under Gareth Southgate. And the first XI he has picked fits in with that.

He has left all the brand-new faces on the bench and handed recalls to Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish. He has kept faith with the spine of Southgate’s team – Pickford, Guehi, Rice, Mainoo, Kane – and might have included more of them if they’d been available (in the case of Jude Bellingham) or match-fit (John Stones).

But he has also brought Trent Alexander-Arnold back from the bench and promoted Anthony Gordon and Levi Colwill, both of whom he knows well from the Under-21s. So, a balanced line-up.

England (possible 4-2-3-1) Jordan Pickford; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harry Maguire, Marc Guehi, Levi Colwill; Kobbie Mainoo, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, Anthony Gordon; Harry Kane.

Subs: Nick Pope, Dean Henderson, Tino Livramento, Rico Lewis, John Stones, Ezri Konsa, Conor Gallagher, Angel Gomes, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Jarrod Bowen, Morgan Gibbs-White.

Heimir Hallgrímsson names his first XI and decides he could do with the experience of Seamus Coleman and Matt Doherty.

Afternoon everyone and welcome to the post-Southgate era. It was eight years ago this week that the England men’s team last went into a match without a sensitive Gareth pep-talk ringing softly in their ears. On that occasion – Slovakia 0-1 England (Lallana 90+5) – the manager was Sam Allardyce, running the show for the first and last time. This evening in Dublin it’s Lee Carsley, a far less familiar figure and a far more enlightened coach.

Like Southgate, Carsley has been installed as a caretaker while also being a candidate for the job proper. Like Southgate, he has come up through the ranks and has managed England Under-21s. Like Southgate, in fact even more so, he has brought success at the big tournaments. Unlike Southgate, whose strengths lay in changing the culture and persuading the players to enjoy representing England, Carsley is known for constructing teams that are innovative, creative and attacking. And he still managed to win the U21 Euros without conceding a goal.

It will be fascinating to see if he can get a different tune out of a highly talented squad. He has to do without Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer – three club superstars who sometimes tread on each other’s toes in internationals – but can still call upon Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones and Marc Guehi. He has added bright young things from his U21 days such as Angel Gomes, Morgan Gibbs-White, Noni Madueke, Tino Livramento and Levi Colwill. And there could well be a central role for Anthony Gordon, since Kane is the only recognised centre-forward in the squad.

Carsley’s first game with the senior team is against Ireland, the nation he played for 40 times as a defensive midfielder after qualifying through his grandmother. He never sang the Irish anthem then, or the British one when he was managing the U21s, and he is all over today’s papers saying that he is not about to change that policy. Like Allardyce, albeit for very different reasons, he is now in the crosshairs of The Daily Telegraph.

Ireland too have a new boss, Heimir Hallgrímsson. He is an Icelandic dentist, deliciously, but also an experienced manager who has run two national teams – Iceland and Jamaica. He was in joint charge of Iceland in 2016 when they pulled off their famous victory over England, which led to Roy Hodgson’s departure, which led to Allardyce’s arrival, which led to Southgate’s appointment. It’s almost as if there’s a play to be written about all this.