Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2024 features three Arsenal players: Aaron Ramsdale, Bukayo Saka, and Declan Rice. But it’s not just the players that are making headlines – Southgate is also borrowing a key concept from Mikel Arteta’s playbook.
The Gunners boasted the best defense in the Premier League last season, conceding only 29 goals. However, Gareth Southgate isn’t focusing on replicating their strong defensive line, despite including Aaron Ramsdale in the squad. This decision is particularly notable in light of the controversy surrounding Ben White.
Southgate isn’t borrowing Arsenal’s dominance in dead-ball situations either, despite their impressive 20 goals from set plays last season under set-piece coach Nicolas Jover. Instead, he is adopting a concept Arteta introduced at Arsenal: referring to substitutes as ‘impacters’ to shift their mentality when they are not in the starting XI. Arteta implemented this change in mid-March last year to enhance the team’s overall performance.
“It’s something that we wanted to change, and I discussed it with a few people, and we wanted to find something that is particular for us,”
Arteta said.
“I think it was the best way to express how we feel about them and how they have to feel towards the team, especially on match day.
“I think it is replacing somebody and making the team better, or doing things differently that are related to winning football matches and at the end, your mentality should be only that, to impact the game to win it.
“That’s it, nothing else. I think the way we describe it is more like we want it. If you repeat it more and more and more and you discuss it more and more and more, it will be closer to that and just being a sub.”
Eberechi Eze has now revealed that Southgate is doing something similar this summer, But under a different name. “The manager spoke about ‘finishers’,” Eze player told the Daily Mail.
“We call them finishers, we know that. The players that come onto the pitch, there is a mentality about it, there’s a way to go about it. There’s importance in that role, it’s not just about the 11.”
Former England rugby union head coach Eddie Jones coined the term ‘finishers’ in 2017, revealing:
“We pick people specifically to finish the game for us.”
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