England played Greece at Wembley last night in the first of their two Nations League fixtures during this break.
Lee Carsley’s latest audition for the job didn’t go well – the home side lost 2-1. While the focus from a Chelsea perspective was largely on Cole Palmer, who had just won his country’s international player of the year award, we were perhaps more interested with how Levi Colwill got on.
The defender was used at left back in Carsley’s first two games, and reprised the same role tonight. We were full of high hopes for him, given he’s done well in the centre for Chelsea this season and has some experience playing on the left too. It was how he started out this time a year ago, playing for Mauricio Pochettino.
But unfortunately for Colwill, it didn’t all go to plan. The stats show he had a pretty horrible night, especially by his usual standards. He made one brilliant Thiago Silva style goal line clearance, but the rest of his night was a little sloppy. He gave the ball away an eye watering 12 times, mainly when trying to force it into midfield.
He won just 60% of his duels according to SofaScore, and completed 81 of 91 passes, well below his usual number.
On ITV, the Southampton born defender was among the players slated by Roy Keane for poor defending leading up to the late winning Greece goal:
Colwill has plenty of time to earn trust back
We have no fear that a return to Chelsea and a return to centre back will restore Colwill’s form and confidence – it’s just a shame to see his England opportunities go badly.
Still, if he keeps excelling at club level this season at centre back, he should certainly be in the conversation for that role with England too.