Anthony Gordon left Newcastle after sitting out the last few games of the season to preserve a move to Barcelona, but looks a changed man after move to Spain
Anthony Gordon of FC Barcelona
Anthony Gordon of FC Barcelona(Image: Judit Cartiel - UEFA/Getty Images)
Anthony Gordon walked through the England mixed zone like a man who'd grabbed a hat-trick and sunk Spain last night.
It was a far cry from his final visit to London as a Newcastle United player back in May when he went through the motions as an unused substitute as the final touches of his move to Barcelona went through. By then Gordon had already conducted a farewell interview at Newcastle and internally everybody knew he was leaving for Spain.
His body language had totally changed since his last appearance in front of English journalists with the Barcelona forward brimming with confidence after his move to La Liga. That was evident before the game had even kicked off at Wembley as he chatted with Spanish players and in fairness he backed that up for a spell against the world champions.
An sublime back-heel to Jude Bellingham was followed by a lung-busting run from his own half before he calmly took a touch and stroked the ball past Unai Simon to haul England level. Just a few moments later, Harry Kane should have picked Gordon out for another big chance but opted to shoot leaving the ex-Toon man burying his head in his hands.
In his 69 minutes at Wembley, the £69million man had 40 touches and while he did not manage to find a team-mate with three crosses, he was England's biggest threat and there was some surprise when he was withdrawn by Thomas Tuchel. It wasn't a repeat of the Argentina World Cup semi-final however, which left the player baffled and annoyed by his substitution.
Gordon was left to reflect: "I'm always disappointed when I come off only just because I want to score more goals and be part of every part of the game. I want to get more assists and excite people who are watching me.
"Tonight I felt like it was maybe the right decision because I felt a bit tired. I'd done a lot of long distance running at high speed so tonight I have no complaints with the manager taking me off."
Gordon is clearly a player at the next level and ironically his goal demonstrated he'd be pretty much perfect for Matthias Jaissle's vertical football tactics but the timings of the head coach arriving and Gordon being sold completely out of synch. Newcastle loaned out Nick Woltemade to Juventus because they didn't believe he could latch on to passes and break at speed like Gordon did last night, and with the benefit of hindsight you could say Newcastle were too hasty in rushing through the England forward's sale to Barca - although they needed to make a quick sale to satisfy UEFA's SCR regulations.
Even after a goal against Spain, the ex-Everton star could not escape the criticism of ITV pundit Roy Keane who said last night that Gordon must step up even more and make himself 'a main man' in the Three Lions set up.
"Anthony Gordon is certainly full of confidence," Keane mused. "He is maturing, and his confidence must be sky-high. He was excellent tonight. What defines you as a top player, is your end product. The talent is all there, but he has to become a main man as a player."
Gordon had also been controversially hooked in Atlanta as England lost the World Cup semi-final to Argentina after leading 1-0 thanks to his goal. It feels like England aren't quite there yet in terms of an argument of being an elite world force and this was further evidence as the pressure grows on Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel got annoyed in his Press conference when asked about England's record against the top sides and said: "When we win nobody brings it up, when we lose one people come up with statistics."
When the emotion dies down after the 3-2 defeat to Spain, Tuchel needs a result against Czechia and Gordon needs a big performance in Prague, but both are achievable.
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