MARTIN SAMUEL: Gareth the gambler will lose without a grand plan to stop Kylian Mbappe

The England coach considered life in mind. ‘The job,’ explained Gareth Southgate, ‘is not just to have a philosophy, the job is to win games.

‘So you can have a philosophy, but if you go home at the beginning of the tournament, that philosophy doesn’t work. With the national team you have to keep winning.’

Think of it another way. In 2007, Reading made two visits to Old Trafford, one in the FA Cup, the other in the league, earning a draw on both occasions. In the league game, they played the last 17 minutes with 10 men and drew 0-0 against a team that included Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

Steve Coppell, the manager, had to leave quickly, leaving the press duties to assistant Wally Downes.

Coppell has a dry wit. Downes, whom Southgate knows well from his time at Crystal Palace, is less likely to take prisoners.

“Did you seem to have a specific plan from the beginning?” said the first questioner, admiringly. ‘Yes,’ Downes said deadpan. ‘Try coming here without one.’

And that is the crux of the truth. What was Reading going to do at Old Trafford? Do you have a chance, then let’s have a chance? The same goes for England, France and Kylian Mbappé.

There are some players that it is necessary to take into account and, right now, Mbappé is one. It doesn’t mean betraying his team’s strengths or beliefs, or at least it shouldn’t.

It does not mean forgetting that England is also capable of hurting France, as it is. However, France possesses generational talent, arguably the best player at this World Cup, and that includes Lionel Messi. It would be arrogant, not to say remiss, to refuse to acknowledge this fact. England don’t want to get into a laughing exchange.

Last month, a new sport emerged in Las Vegas. The Power Slap League pretty much does what it says on the tin. The two contestants face each other and take turns slapping their opponent across the face with an open hand. There is no defense, only offense, and many doubt the sanity of the Nevada state athletic commission for allowing such outright violence.

The argument is that there will now be mouth guards, ear plugs, and rules governing what part of the face can be hit; against this, there have been cases of concussion and beaters collapsing unconscious. “It’s what you’d get if you let 13-year-olds invent a sport,” wrote one observer. “They better kick each other in the balls,” argued USA Today.

However, there will be those who argue in favor of England taking on Mbappé with power shots, or even nut kicks. Slap, Bukayo Saka has a chance. Kick, here comes Mbappé. There is only one winner in that strategy. Mbappé would enter this England team; Mbappé would enter any team in this World Cup. So strategy is essential.

Nobody tries to beat a team led by Pep Guardiola. That doesn’t mean they can’t be beat. It just means that the opposition has to find another way.

It’s also an irony that with Southgate accused of negativity for so long, it now seems likely that he might end up being accused of being too arrogant if England lose playing a conventional back four, with no additional provision for France’s left-hand player. Those who urge England to take the lead will quickly disappear without sharing the blame if they do so, and they fail.

Similarly, if Southgate tackles the Mbappé threat without success, you’d imagine a bolder England would have swept Didier Deschamps’ side out of the park. He only wins if he wins.

Just as when Marcus Rashford was omitted against Senegal, Southgate’s critics spelled a disaster, so it will be that, if he is beaten, every call will be repurposed as a gift to France.

So what’s the argument for duplicating Mbappe with Kieran Trippier outside of Kyle Walker? Here goes: Trippier, who can also attack and make a good cross, has the most defensive intelligence of Southgate’s options. He will be there, not to specifically engage the player, but to block and cut off his supply lines.

When this process fails, as it will on occasion because France is no fool, then Walker meets him one on one, and Trippier rallied to face him if he cuts inside, with his favored right foot. If he chooses to move on from Walker, then hopefully England’s quickest full-back can meet that challenge with an out-of-field outing.

So why Trippier and not Saka, who is more of a forward threat and has limited experience as a winger? Trippier simply bolsters the defensive end.

We can argue that a 4-3-3 has gotten England this far, but this is quite a climb up the class and against an XI as talented as France, they invariably revert to 4-5-1 anyway.

So why not start the most skilled player on that system? Trippier is smart enough to come together and create the 4-3-3 form in attack, and Jordan Henderson and Declan Rice are experienced enough to see when that is happening and cross over to cut off Mbappe in the event of a counterattack. .

It doesn’t even mean dropping Saka, it just means choosing between him and Foden at the start of this match.

And some will argue that this talk is negative, that it gives France the psychological advantage. If Southgate changes his form and strategy, he says he’s scared and sets a poor tone.

That is not true. Some matches, some challenges, are just different. Sir Alex Ferguson had no qualms about setting up a specific team for a specific match. Darren Fletcher said that he would tell him to rest for a few weeks and think, for example, of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It would be necessary that day. Ferguson was never afraid to put together a team for just one day.

It was about winning. Southgate knows it too. He says that he has known how and who he will play since Monday, and most assume a back four. However, there was enough pragmatism in their conversation yesterday to suggest that he knows nothing good will come of refusing to make a plan for Mbappé.

“You have to recognize the states and the stages of the games,” he said. ‘You can’t, against a team at the level of France, just go out there and play and not have any preparation for what they’re doing. But we can’t overstate that either. We have strengths ourselves and we want to make sure we continue to accentuate them.

‘Normally if we shapeshift it’s because of a tactical issue rather than an individual. Clearly with France, they have an outstanding player, so you need extra bodies around him. We have a player who can deal with that as well as anyone, but it can’t just be his responsibility. You have to have zonal coverage and we can’t let Antoine Griezmann take over the park because he’s pretty good himself.

‘I know that people think that I have a preference for a certain system, but in any case, my preference has always been 4-3-3. I just don’t think it’s always been appropriate for us to play that and get the best out of the team. We prepare the team for the patterns we see and the positions that players like to occupy. But, equally, we are also doing it at the other end of the pitch.’

And therein lies the dilemma. Trippier couldn’t score Saka’s third goal against Senegal, Messi’s hit on the goalkeeper, because he wouldn’t put himself in that position. Similarly, no manager selecting a pair of players to better control Mbappé for 90 minutes would look no further than Tripper and Walker.

There are numbers going around that suggest England should be arrogant, even optimistic: eight scorers at this World Cup to France’s three, three clean sheets to France’s none.

Here’s how it could best be served to continue those ambitions, though: Mbappe vs. Walker and Trippier: 424 minutes, just one goal. It could be a plan.