Anthony Gordon calls on the England national team to abandon the imitation of Spain's style

Anthony Gordon, the England national team's winger, called for abandoning attempts to imitate the Spanish national team's style, stressing that the "Three Lions" have different strengths, and that they must rely on their own identity if they want to compete for major titles.

Gordon's statements come before the expected confrontation between England and Spain, on Saturday, in the first match for the two teams since the World Cup Finals, in which England achieved its best result in the World Cup since winning the title in 1966, after reaching the semi-finals before losing to Argentina 2-1, then defeating France 6-4 in the third-place match.

Gordon said, according to the British BBC, while he was at the England team’s camp at St. George’s Park: “We cannot continue to look at other countries and try to be like them, because we are not like them. "We're English, we have our own strengths that they don't have, and they have strengths that we don't have, so maybe we should start playing the way we do best."

The Barcelona player believes that the experience he had in the Spanish League since his move to the Catalan club, coming from Newcastle for 69.3 million pounds sterling, gave him a different vision of the way the Spaniards play, and made him more convinced that trying to transfer their style to the English national team is not necessarily the solution.

He added: “I speak from the point of view of someone who feels that we are trying to imitate Spain. “Being in Spain, I know we have equally good players, but they have different characteristics, so why try to make our players like the Spanish players?”

He continued: “Keeping the ball in this way is not in the English DNA. “I'm not sure it's something that can be taught, because now that I've played in Spain, I can talk about real knowledge of the different way they keep the ball.”

Gordon pointed out that some of the Spanish players' decisions with the ball amaze him, saying: “Sometimes I look at some of the decisions they make with the ball and think: I'm not sure how you saw this.” It's the way they're built. “I don’t know if we can put a name to that, but they are definitely different in their composition.”

These statements come in light of repeated questions about England's ability to control matches against major teams, after losing two consecutive finals in the European Championship, in addition to being eliminated by France and Argentina in the last two editions of the World Cup.

The Spanish national team had won the World Cup title after defeating Argentina, after imposing its control over the final match and possessing 65 percent of the ball, while the Argentine national team was satisfied with two shots during 120 minutes, neither of which hit the goal.

Gordon also recalled memories of the exit against Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals, after he scored the lead goal for England before he was substituted after 17 minutes, in the match that ended with his team losing 2-1 after Argentina scored two goals, one of them in the final minutes.

Gordon said that he “never felt worse” than he did after that loss, but he believes that its effects could turn into motivation in the future, adding: “The scar should not be a negative thing, because it may lead us to victory in the upcoming tournaments.”

Despite his astonishment at the decision to replace him after scoring, Gordon explained that he understood the matter from a tactical standpoint, as a winger who was accustomed to leaving matches at different times, noting that the nature of his substitution against Argentina was different due to the timing of the match and the circumstances surrounding it.

He also refused to hold German coach Thomas Tuchel responsible for the loss, after criticism of his decision to switch to playing with three defenders after England advanced, a change that gave Argentina the opportunity to return to the match, and then decided it in stoppage time.

“We shouldn't try to blame one man who is clearly trying to do his best and win the cup for all of us,” Gordon said.

He added: “As players, we could have done more to take the initiative and control the match against Argentina. “I think if we had done that, the coach would not have made the decision to play with a five-man defense.”

He concluded by saying: “For me, we had the best team and the best players in that match, but during the last twenty minutes we did not play our best football. “This is something that the coach cannot influence much from the sideline, so I think we all as a group have to take responsibility.”