Why Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and England’s right flank hold the key to beating Slovakia

Ah, yes, the ‘easy side of the draw’ – there’s no better way to set a team up for failure than patronising half of the best teams in Europe at the same time is there? England find themselves in the bottom bracket, away from most of the other pre-tournament favourites, but unless performances pick up then it probably won’t matter who they play, and the first team to put England to the knock-out test is Slovakia.

Slovakia came through an exceptionally close Group E, beating Belgium, drawing with Romania and losing to Ukraine as every team finished up on four points. Along the way, they demonstrated stamina and considerable mental fortitude, but it’s still fair to say that England should really win on Sunday. Then again, this is already a side with one giant killing to its name, and Gareth Southgate has a couple tactical conundrums to work through if he wants to get the better of them.

Slovakia are usually displayed on team sheets as playing in a 4-3-3, but it’s more accurate to say they play in a 4-4-2 with right winger and double goalscorer Ivan Schranz dropping deeper than his position on the graphics tends to suggest – and when out of possession, they fall back into a 4-1-4-1 with defensive midfielder Stanislav Lobotka occupying the deepest role and taking on any players who venture into the number ten slot.

Lobotka, who plays his club football for Napoli and won the Scudetto with them in 2023, was crucial in the 1-0 win over Belgium, shutting down Kevin de Bruyne for large periods when the Belgians had control of possession and sprinting about to press the rest of the midfielders in transition. With the Manchester City playmaker neutralised, particularly in the first half, Domenico Tedesco’s side were forced to rely on occasional moments provided by their tricksy, pacy wingers.

Lobotka will do the same job again against England, setting up one of the key battles – him against Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. If England can move the ball quickly, they may be able to get Foden inside and set up two-on-ones between the back four and the more advanced midfielders. If they are slow and somnolent on the ball again, then England’s weakness down the left flank means that they will likely spend a lot of time pushing possession into Slovakia’s strongest area.

If England can find a way to balance their attack better to offer a genuine threat on the left, then it may well prove to be a good idea to make sure that whichever midfielder is paired with Declan Rice gets forward as often as possible to ensure Bellingham isn’t picked up and shut down in the same manner as De Bruyne. Lobotka is unlikely to lose a straight one-on-one battle on current form, even against the best in the world.

Part of the reason for that is that although Slovakia are not an especially attacking team, they also don’t drop too deep or allow much space – they play a low-block and condense the field quite effectively, meaning that it’s hard to pass the ball through them or find space between the lines. England will have to play with a much higher tempo in transitions to catch Slovakia out, but that hasn’t been their style under Southgate, at this European Championship or at any time prior.

Where they do have that pace and ability to break, however, is down the right flank. For all that there is a groundswell of opinion that England should move Bukayo Saka to left-back for the Slovakia game, this is one match-up where the Arsenal winger’s raw speed and skill at timing runs past the shoulder of the last man (not to mention his goal threat) could be hugely important. Slovakia do leave some space in behind, and Saka is by far England’s best outlet for exploiting it. He needs to be as high up the field as possible.

Normally that would mean aggressively supporting him from right-back, but that may be a risky strategy. With Schranz often starting deeper, Slovakia often focus their attacks down the left with Lukáš Haraslín pushed higher up the pitch while central striker David Strelec stays close to him. When they counter-attack or go direct, their first instinct is to head down that flank, with Schranz running from deep to provide an option from the cross.

That may necessitate keeping Kyle Walker pinned back to ensure he isn’t caught miles upfield when possession is lost and leaving England open to the counter – so England need to get support for Saka another way. Strangely, that may well offer up a case for the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The Liverpool wing-back’s stint in midfield hasn’t been especially edifying but he did make a difference in the first half against Serbia, which remains England’s high watermark at Euro 2024 so far. While nominally playing central midfielder, he routinely drifted out to the right in possession, playing as a winger, giving Saka support and allowing him to play off the last man without having to drop deeper to get the ball – all without leaving Walker isolated.

As that game wore on, Southgate’s defensive tendencies got the better of the team and they dropped deeper and deeper, with Alexander-Arnold becoming increasingly static and pinned down in the middle, but the way he spread England’s shape out early offered an insight into how England can have their cake and eat it against Slovakia – by moving an extra man out wide in possession to create a potential overlap without excessively compromising their defence.

It's perfectly possible that Kobbie Mainoo or Adam Wharton could do that job just as well, while Conor Gallagher could always play and push up closer to Bellingham in an attempt to generate the overlap in midfield. Perhaps Foden and Bellingham could play together ahead of Rice while a more direct wide man like Anthony Gordon tried to probe the gap between the defence and Martin Dúbravka. Southgate has options, but the key goals remain the same – look for ways to bring pace to burn in attack, in order either to force Slovakia’s defence deeper or to exploit the space in behind their back line, all while ensuring that Slovakia’s strong left side isn’t given too much leeway.

Slovakia are not an exceptional team, but they are fit, hard-working and disciplined, and while drawing them may not have been the toughest assignment England could have been handed, they have at the bare minimum earned enough respect and credit to not be viewed as an ‘easy’ opponent. England will have to be sharper, quicker and braver than they were in the group stages to get the better of Slovakia’s strong defence and midfield. They have until Sunday to find the self-belief and aggression required.