England would be making a mistake by trying to replicate Spain\u2019s successful style of play in a bid to win major tournaments, winger Anthony Gordon said ahead of Saturday\u2019s match between the European giants.<\/p>\n
Gordon is well-placed to discuss the qualities of Spain\u2019s World Cup-winning players, given he now trains daily with many of them \u2014 like Rodri, Lamine Yamal, Pedri and more \u2014 following his offseason move to La Liga champion Barcelona.<\/p>\n
“They\u2019re definitely built different,” Gordon said. “So I\u2019m not sure we can ever get that.”<\/p>\n
(Photo by Pablo Rodriguez\/Quality Sport Images\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Long-held doubts over England\u2019s ability to end the men\u2019s team\u2019s long wait to win a European Championship or World Cup returned over the summer when England squandered a lead \u2014 earned by a goal from Gordon \u2014 by conceding two late goals to lose 2-1 to Argentina in the World Cup semifinals.<\/p>\n Speaking at England\u2019s training base this week, Gordon said he might never get over the defeat that has prompted questions over whether England\u2019s players have the quality to control these high-pressure games like the Spanish can. That\u2019s because England became ultra-defensive after taking the lead \u2014 Gordon was replaced by a defender, Ezri Konsa, in a telling substitution by coach Thomas Tuchel \u2014 and allowed Argentina to seize the initiative in the final half-hour.<\/p>\n So, Gordon was asked, couldn\u2019t England just be more like Spain?<\/p>\n “I think culturally, it\u2019s not just that tournament or that game where we couldn\u2019t control a game,” he said, referring to the Argentina loss. “England, as a nation, we don\u2019t have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do. It\u2019s not in us.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s not in the English DNA,” Gordon added, “and it\u2019s probably something I\u2019ve only realized to that extent from playing in Spain now. Because I think we, as English players, are educated the same way as the Spanish players. We know how to keep possession but it\u2019s the decision-making of certain players in Spain, which it\u2019s just not a natural thing. I even look at some of the decisions they take on the ball sometimes and think, \u2018I\u2019m not sure how you\u2019ve seen that.\u2019”<\/p>\n (Photo by Peter Joneleit\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BROWSE BY England would be making a mistake by trying to replicate Spain\u2019s successful style of play in a bid to win major tournaments, winger Anthony Gordon said ahead of Saturday\u2019s match between the European giants. Gordon is well-placed to discuss the qualities of Spain\u2019s World Cup-winning players, given he now trains daily with many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}