Gareth Southgate copies Mikel Arteta Arsenal tactic as England prepare for Euro 2024 opener

Crystal Palace are the only club with more players in the England squad than Arsenal - and Gareth Southgate is taking inspiration from Mikel Arteta ahead of the European Championship.

Arsenal had by far the best defence in the Premier League last season - conceding only 29 goals, but it is not their watertight backline that Southgate is copying, despite calling up Aaron Ramsdale. That is perhaps a given with the whole Ben White debacle.

Neither is it their dominance in dead-ball situations - after scoring 20 goals from set plays last season thanks to set-piece coach Nicolas Jover - that Southgate is borrowing. Instead, it is a concept that Arteta started using that is carrying over to England.

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In mid-March last year, the Arsenal manager acknowledged that substitutes are now known as 'impacters' at the club to shift the player's mentality if they are out of the starting XI. “It’s something that we wanted to change, and I discussed it with a few people, and we wanted to find something that is particular for us,” Arteta said. “I think it was the best way to express how we feel about them and how they have to feel towards the team, especially on match day.

“I think it is replacing somebody and making the team better, or doing things differently that are related to winning football matches and at the end, your mentality should be only that, to impact the game to win it.

"That’s it, nothing else. I think the way we describe it is more like we want it. If you repeat it more and more and more and you discuss it more and more and more, it will be closer to that and just being a sub.”

Ebere Eze has now revealed that Southgate is doing something similar this summer, albeit under a different name. "The manager spoke about 'finishers'," the Palace player told the Daily Mail.

"We call them finishers; we know that. The players that come onto the pitch, there is a mentality about it, there’s a way to go about it. There’s importance in that role, it’s not just about the 11."

Former England rugby union head coach Eddie Jones coined the term 'finishers' in 2017, revealing: “We pick people specifically to finish the game for us."

Arteta and Jones are part of a coaching group on WhatsApp that holds regular video calls. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and George Karl, who went into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2022, are also known to be in the group.