VILLA PARK — It was a stonking slide tackle from Elliot Anderson. A monster. A beauty.
One for the defensive midfield highlights reel, the 22-year-old putting in a commanding performance on his England debut, dominating the midfield, stamping his mark on Thomas Tuchel’s troublesome defensive midfield position.
It was, really, only a shame that the performance was against Andorra, the huge sliding tackle, midway through the first half, on Pau Babot – a 22-year-old who plays his club football for Hanauer SC 1960, a team in the Hessenliga.
I’ll admit, I had to look that one up. Turns out it’s the top league in the state of Hesse, one of German football’s Oberligas – the fifth tier of German football, making it, by my estimation, around National League level.
Tuchel is in desperate need of