CHELSEA attacker Cole Palmer found himself at the centre of a debate about formations after England boss Lee Carsley started their Nations League game against Greece without a recognised striker in their 2-1 defeat.
On an emotional night at Wembley following the death of former Greece international George Baldock on Wednesday at the age of just 31, Vangelis Pavlidis scored the winner four minutes into injury-time.
Pavlidis had put Greece ahead in the 49th minute before Jude Bellingham’s 87th-minute equaliser.
With captain Harry Kane injured, Carsley started Bellingham as a false 9, with Palmer, Bakayo Saka, Phil Foden and Anthony Gordon also in the side and Declan Rice as the only central midfielder.
England were poor and as well as their two goals the Wembley visitors had three more disallowed.
“With the players we have got, we have to be courageous at times with our systems and be creative. I could have quite easily gone with a recognised nine. We had two on the bench. But I thought it was important to try something different,” interim boss Carsley said.
“I think at this stage as well coming of the last two games, I never at any point thought that I have got it cracked. It was a case of let’s try something different and I’m happy to take blame for that. It was totally my idea.
“I thought about it long and hard about, in terms how it might look, how it might build and how it might feel. It is something that didn’t come off tonight but I don’t think we should rule out having that opportunity to try something different.”
Carsley added: “I didn’t think we started the game great. I thought that we were second best a lot of times.
“We tried something different with the formation and the areas of the pitch we tried to get into. We never really gave ourselves a chance to see if it was the right decision or wrong.
“Obviously looking at the result and the game panned out it was a challenging night for us.
“Greece played well. I thought they were highly motivated as you would expect and were second best tonight.”
Former Sheffield United defender Baldock joined Panathinaikos in the summer and earned twelve caps. He was found dead in the swimming pool of his house in the suburb of Glyfada in Athens.
Both sides wore black armbands and there was a minute’s silence before the game. The Greek players held up Baldock’s No.2 shirt after the first goal.
Pavlidis said: “It was a really special game for us because of George and of course we gave everything for him and for his family.
“We just said that we have to play for him. It doesn’t matter the score today, we want to play for him and we give everything for him.”
