Start with R9 Template

As the tournament approached, England entered the final stage of their camp at St George's Park.

Ling maintained his habit of doing additional work after scheduled sessions, although the volume was considerably lower than during the club season.

Southgate and the medical staff were carefully managing his workload after Manchester United's exhausting run through all comps and even Ling understood that pushing himself unnecessarily now would only leave him tired when the matches actually mattered.

The one habit he refused to abandon was video review.

After training, he regularly went through footage of England's attacking patterns and defensive transitions, paying particular attention to the moments when players misunderstood one another's movements.

He had done the same during his previous friendly camps with England, so a few members of the squad already knew what he was like, but this was still very different from Manchester United.

At Carrington, Ling had spent years training with many of the same players until certain combinations became almost instinctive.

With England, he had only shared a handful of matches and camps with most of his teammates, meaning there was still plenty to learn on both sides.

During this camp, several players began joining the review sessions more regularly.

Mount was particularly interested in the spaces created whenever Kane dropped away from the defensive line, while Sancho wanted a clearer understanding of when Ling preferred receiving to feet and when he wanted the pass played directly into space.

Trent Alexander-Arnold spent more time studying crossing positions, especially the timing required when Ling moved inside from the opposite flank.

One clip showed Trent delivering early from deep while Ling attacked behind the far-side full-back.

Ling paused the footage, replayed the sequence, and complimented the delivery before moving straight into the positioning that had made it possible.

Trent had faced Ling enough times for Liverpool to know how dangerous those movements could become, but producing them as teammates was still relatively new territory for both of them.

That was true of England's attacking unit as a whole.

Southgate had already seen enough during Ling's previous friendly appearances to understand the qualities he brought, but a few international windows were nowhere near enough to produce the automatic understanding Ling enjoyed with his Manchester United teammates.

The purpose of these sessions was therefore not to teach everyone his game from nothing, nor to pretend they had already mastered it, but to speed up a process that international football normally allowed very little time to develop.

...

The England staff also spent considerable time reviewing their group opponents.

Croatia still possessed Modrić's ability to control midfield and enough experienced players to punish an undisciplined press.

Scotland could turn the match into a much more physical contest if England allowed the occasion and rivalry to dictate the tempo, while the Czech Republic were organized enough to frustrate any side that became impatient.

Southgate repeatedly emphasized that England could not approach the tournament as though Ling had to solve every attacking problem himself.

His club form made that temptation understandable—Manchester United had spent three seasons watching him decide matches that appeared to be drifting away from them—but England possessed far too much quality elsewhere to reduce the entire attack to waiting for their most famous player to produce something.

Kane remained one of Europe's best center-forwards, Sterling had years of experience at the highest level, and players such as Sancho and Mount offered completely different ways of threatening a defense.

If opponents concentrated excessively on Ling, England needed to punish the space they surrendered elsewhere.

Ling agreed with the principle.

He wanted responsibility and had no problem receiving the ball when a match became difficult, but there was a considerable difference between taking responsibility and having ten teammates waiting for him to manufacture a goal by himself.

The stronger England became as a collective, the more difficult it would be for opponents to concentrate entirely on stopping him.

That balance was particularly important because he was still learning the details of his teammates' games.

He knew Kane's qualities from facing him repeatedly in the Premier League and had begun developing a better understanding with him during England's previous friendlies, but knowing what a player could do was not the same as building years of chemistry together.

The same applied to Sterling, Mount, Sancho, Trent, and most of the rest of the squad.

Euro 2020 would be the first time those combinations were tested under genuine tournament pressure.

...

A few days before England's opening match, the FA held its usual media session at St George's Park.

Reporters were allowed into designated areas of the training complex to collect interviews and tournament material, and most of England's senior players had already gone through the predictable questions about preparation, pressure, Wembley, and expectations.

Then one camera crew spotted Ling walking between buildings in slides, training shorts, and a loose England top while taking large bites out of a bread roll.

For a moment, the reporter simply watched him.

The image did not exactly fit the carefully managed public persona of the reigning Ballon d'Or winner who had scored four goals in the Champions League final only days earlier.

Ling noticed the camera after she called his name, swallowed what he was eating, wiped the corner of his mouth, and almost instantly adopted the calm expression familiar from hundreds of post-match interviews.

The speed of the transformation made the reporter laugh before she asked how he had found England's preparation after such a long club season.

"The first few days were mostly recovery for me, which I probably needed more than I wanted to admit. Since then, the work has been good. The biggest challenge with international football is always time."

Ling explained that this was especially noticeable for him because his England career was still relatively young.

He had appeared in a few friendlies before the tournament, enough to become familiar with Southgate's methods and begin understanding the players around him, but there was no comparison with the day-to-day familiarity of club football.

"At United, you train together almost every day for ten months. You learn tiny things without even thinking about them anymore. With England, I've only had a few camps and friendly matches, so we're still building that understanding.

I know what Harry Kane can do because I've watched him and played against him for years, but playing with someone is different. You have to learn exactly when he wants you to move, when he's going to release the pass, and what he expects when he drops deeper."

Maguire was the obvious exception.

Ling had spent enough time beside him at Manchester United to know the defender's habits rather better than either man probably wanted to admit, but with most of the England squad the relationships were still developing.

When the reporter asked specifically about Kane, Ling described the partnership as promising rather than established.

Kane's ability to drop away from the defensive line naturally suited runners attacking beyond him, and Southgate had already experimented with that relationship during Ling's earlier friendly appearances.

The idea was simple enough: if a center-back followed Kane, Ling could attack the vacated space; if the defender stayed deep, Kane could receive and create himself.

The theory looked excellent.

Euro 2020 would show how well it worked when the opposition had spent days preparing specifically to stop them.

Then came the question everyone wanted answered.

"What is England's target for the tournament?"

Ling did not need much time to consider it.

"To win it."

There was no boast in the answer and certainly no guarantee.

Ling simply saw little purpose in pretending England should aim lower than their talent allowed.

"England reached the World Cup semifinal two years ago, and a lot of the players from that team are still here. Most of them are better and more experienced now, and there are other very good players who have come into the squad since then.

I wasn't part of that World Cup team, so for me this is my first major international tournament, but when I look around this squad, I don't see why the ambition should be anything less than trying to win."

He was equally quick to acknowledge the competition.

"France are world champions and probably look at their squad believing they should win. Portugal are defending champions. Belgium have had the same core together for years, and Germany, Italy, Spain and several others have enough quality to go all the way. England are not entitled to anything, but we should believe we belong in that group."

The reporter naturally brought up Croatia next.

For Ling, the subject carried a different meaning than it did for many of his teammates.

He had watched the 2018 semifinal rather than played in it, while Maguire, Kane, Sterling, Henderson and several others had experienced the defeat personally.

He understood why the rematch mattered to them and to England supporters, but he had no intention of pretending it was his own revenge story.

"I remember watching that semifinal. Croatia were excellent, especially once the match settled down, and England came very close. For the players who were there, I'm sure there's extra motivation, but this match is two years later. Different tournament, different circumstances. What happened in Russia doesn't give either team anything at Wembley."

Scotland required even less explanation.

Ling had lived in England long enough to understand the rivalry perfectly well, and with the match being played at Wembley, he expected the atmosphere to make it feel nothing like an ordinary group fixture.

Beyond that, he declined the reporter's attempts to coax something inflammatory out of him.

The interview appeared online almost immediately.

...

📱 @EnglandFootball

Jeremy Ling on England's Euro 2020 ambition: "I wasn't part of the World Cup team, so this is my first major tournament, but when I look around this squad, I don't see why the goal should be anything less than trying to win."

📱 @ThreeLionsTalk

Good answer. England reached the semifinal without him in 2018, and now they've added the reigning Ballon d'Or winner to an already improving squad.

📱 @WembleyWatch

Kane dropping deep with Ling attacking behind him could be devastating, but remember they've only had a few England camps together. Tournament chemistry is going to be interesting.

📱 @LiverpoolWatch

Spent years hoping Trent never gives Ling a cross to attack. Now I'm asking for exactly that. International football does strange things to a man.

📱 @CroatiaFootballTalk

At least Ling isn't pretending 2018 was his revenge. The England players who were actually in Moscow will be the ones carrying that memory.

📱 @ScotlandAway

England have added Ling since the World Cup. Great. As if Wembley needed another reason to be unbearable.

📱 @EuroTactics

Important distinction with Ling: enormous club experience, very little competitive international experience. Southgate already knows his quality from the friendlies, but integrating him into a tournament side is a different challenge.

...

By the final days of camp, the atmosphere changed almost imperceptibly.

Training was still relaxed enough for jokes and meals remained noisy, but everyone understood that the experimental stage was almost over.

The next match would count, and for Ling that distinction mattered more than it did for many of his teammates.

His previous England appearances had all come in friendlies.

They had allowed him to experience Southgate's methods, wear the shirt, and begin building relationships with the squad, but there had always been another layer of distance around those games.

Substitutions were plentiful, managers experimented, and the consequences of defeat were limited.

Euro 2020 would be different.

This would be Ling's first major international tournament and his first real run of competitive matches for England.

Every result would shape the group, every mistake would carry greater weight, and one poor performance in the knockout rounds could end the entire summer.

At club level, he had spent the previous three seasons collecting almost everything available to him: three Premier League titles, three Champions Leagues, domestic cups, and the Ballon d'Or.

He had played in enormous finals and learned how to deal with pressure that would have overwhelmed him when he first entered Manchester United's senior team.

None of those trophies gave him experience of this particular challenge.

England had come close in Russia without him.

Most of the core from that tournament was still here, older and more experienced, while Ling and several other players had strengthened the squad since then.

Now he had his first opportunity to discover what major tournament football felt like from inside the England shirt.

Euro 2020 was about to begin!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!