Starting CBs of major tournament winners since 2010:
Spain 24: Le Normand and Laporte
Argentina 22: Romero and Otamendi
Italy 21: Chiellini and Bonucci
France 18: Umtiti and Varane
Portugal 16: Pepe and Jose Fonte
Germany 14: Boateng and Hummels
Spain 12: Pique and Ramos
Spain 10: Pique and Puyol
4/8 have two world class CBs (Italy, Germany, and the two Spains). 1/8 has a world class CB paired with a very good CB (France). 2/8 have a very good CB paired with a mediocre CB (Argentina, Portugal). 1/8 have a pair of mediocre CBs (Spain).
A world class CB duo is obviously a great thing to have that enhances your chances of winning a tournament. But tournaments have been won without them! Stones is comfortably on the level of multiple guys here who had been the 'better' CB in pairings, and England have CB prospects fully capable of being better than the f***ing Otamendis of the world.
And it all comes back to the core point, which is that these games are not played on paper. For all that the panic has consistently been "England have bad CBs", their issue was always in the parts of the pitch where they're fantastic on paper, because their offensive coaching was f***ing dreadful.
And it's always so funny when it circles back to Maguire. For all that Maguire is an easy meme, he's been consistently fantastic for England. There's a reason why he made the Team of the Tournament for Euro 2020 when he only played in the knockout stages. People need to actually watch games instead of forming opinions from Internet shitposts.
Thanks for this, interesting to see...but I do think that it does skip over some nuances, like the way those CBs affected the way their teams could play.
You don't need the best CBs in the world to park the bus with 10 men committed to defending their keeper, the same way you do if you're going to ask them to defend at the halfway line, with some attackers that coast against the ball, ya know?
My mind goes to Portugal...who won their trophy by somehow managing to be more negative than DD's France. Part of why they played that way was cowardly & mediocre coaching, but part of that was they didn't have a Puyol/Ramos-Pique or Mats-Boa.
And I think Southgate was essentially England's Santos. A mediocre coach who lacked the courage or talent to compensate for his non-world-class CBs in a better way than just playing much more conservatively in an effort to limit their exposure.
Like Spain and Italy's latest trophies were won with the pressing cohesion of a club side. When you press that well, you can get away with old or mediocre CBs without handicapping yourself creatively.
Another part of this is the goalkeeping, I get that Pickford hasn't been a disaster for their NT but he doesn't command opponents respect or have the kind of aura that the big keepers do...and that helps you compensate for your CBs without major tactical changes.
So it's a cumulative thing. England's lack of an elite CB (or CB pair) contributes, their lack of an imposing keeper contributes, the coaching contributes, their lack of an elite holding midfielder contributes, their attackers underwhelming even given the context contributes, etc.
More better or more courageous could tip the balance, but I dunno if TT is talented enough to do so...cause I'm pretty confident he won't be courageous enough.