𝘼𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡 𝙂𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙨 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙’𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙙

Composed midfielder demonstrated the ability to do the right thing again and again that is vital to his position

The English Toni Kroos does not exist. Nor does the English Andrea Pirlo, the English Luka Modric, the English Rodri. Instinctively, everybody knows this.England doesn’t have earthquakes, England doesn’t grow citrus fruit and England doesn’t produce technical central midfielders who can control a game and dictate the tempo of play. That’s just the way it is.

So, into this paradox steps Angel Gomes. Paradoxical because in many ways the player Gomes is trying to be, the role he is being fitted for, is something that doesn’t actually exist. Naturally, because football fans are impatient and adore the dopamine rush of making instant sweeping judgments, the impulse is to measure him against this stratospheric, borderline impossible standard. He’s either the English Pirlo. Or he isn’t. Good luck.

In any case, Gomes quickly sets to work. There is, of course, a further irony here: the deep-lying midfield role is not a position that lends itself to snap verdicts or quick conclusions. This is not a role assessed on moments, or flashes of genius, or goals or assists, but on longevity and dependability and metronomic consistency, the ability to do the right thing again and again and again.

You are not here to create viral content. You are here to be perfect. One hundred passes, and it’s fine if nobody can remember a single one of them. At the highest levels of the game, where the pressing is ferocious and the centre-backs are spread wide and the margins are super-fine, it is a job akin to being the goalkeeper of the outfield. Your successes will be quickly forgotten, but your mistakes will always be disproportionately costly.

As it happens Gomes made exactly 100 passes in this game, completed 97, and one of them will certainly be remembered. Early on Trent Alexander-Arnold played the ball into Gomes, who shuffled it deliciously around the corner with the outside of his foot, through the gap and into the path of Jack Grealish, who scored.

It was Gomes’s first England assist, a moment of genuine quality, and perhaps even a kind of arrival: a moment to settle and reassure him, convince him he can do a job at this level. The temptation, therefore, is to conclude that this little piece of skill perfectly demonstrates his worth to the team. But it doesn’t.

Because actually, England have a lot of players who can do this. Jude Bellingham can do it. So can Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden and Cole Palmer and James Maddison and others. What makes Gomes distinctive, what will ultimately cement his place and define his value, is the other stuff. The other 99 passes.

Let’s come back to the idea of control. Which is often deployed as a simple synonym for possession, but actually encompasses far more: territorial control, strategic control, emotional control. When England lose control of games it is often because they get pinned back, forced to carry the ball in ever less promising areas, pushed into low-percentage options because their emotional composure has deserted them. It’s a whole package.

So the deep-lying midfielder carries the additional function of exuding calm. Shortly before Gomes’s assist he gave the ball away in the England half, allowing a quick Finland attack that ended in an early chance for Topi Keskinen. And if it feels disproportionate to single out one loose pass amid the 97 he completed without fuss, then these are simply the standards required of the job.