Qualifying top of the group, avoiding the more difficult side of the draw and only conceding one goal in three games. You’d be forgiven for thinking that things must be looking good for England and their manager Gareth Southgate at Euro 2024. But you’d be wrong, very wrong.
Having come into the European Championships as one of the favorites to lift the trophy, England have underwhelmed hugely, showing very little signs of improvement across their three group fixtures and even fewer reasons to fancy their chances later in the tournament.
Throughout Each game – a 1-0 victory over Serbia followed by dull draws against Denmark and Slovenia – there has been a worrying lack of progress for a team that contains the wealth of talent that this England side do and clear signs that this is a team – and a manager – without a clear plan for success.
They have made it through to the last 16 with the fewest shots and lowest expected goals (XG) of any other nation. This is from a team containing the Premier League’s best player, Phil Foden, the Bundesliga’s top scorer, Harry Kane and La Liga’s Player of the Year, Jude Bellingham, who, before the tournament was a favorite to receive the Ballon d’Or.
To not get the best out of these players is an abject failure and one that has ominous echoes of England teams of old, equally unable to see the best of their former greats.
But that isn’t the only issue here. Over the three games, England has been flat, pedestrian in possession, undynamic and wholly unbalanced. Players have been shoehorned into positions they are either unfamiliar with or uncomfortable in. Kieran Trippier is a fine right back. Yet, he has spent months on the sidelines with injury. Additionally, he must play on the left. He repeatedly turns back inside and offers no forward progression on that side of the pitch. Trent Alexander-Arnold is another fine right back but has been used ineffectively as a midfielder who looks lost as to what his role should be.
While it’s understandable to want to get as many of your best players onto the pitch at the same time, it makes far less sense to do so if that results in an overall weakness of a team’s effectiveness. To accommodate Jude Bellingham’s emergence as a number 10 for Real Madrid, Foden has been tasked with keeping the width in a left-wing position, limiting his ability to impact a game.
There are too many experiments being made in a live tournament environment. These are the sorts of issues that are worked out in the softer qualifying games and friendlies that come before. The lack of an alternative to a clearly injured Luke Shaw is an almighty oversight from the manager. Fans have known for weeks that his participation was, at best, unlikely.
Watching an England game is a dull, lifeless experience, especially when compared to the likes of Spain, Germany and Portugal. Those nations have expansive football stemming from each player. Those stars play in the position that best suits their talents. Additionally, they know what the manager requests out of them. Spain played an entirely different team in their third group game without ever hinting at struggles like England.
Southgate is a manager who has built success on pragmatism. When unsure over the quality of his defense, he looked to shore things up by playing a back-three with wing-backs and a midfield duo capable of holding position and nullifying opponents’ attacks. When Kane started to drop deep, he instilled pacy wingers like Sterling and Rashford to make the runs in behind to receive passes from their captain. He knows that teams rarely win international tournaments with an all-out commitment to attack and has often imitated Didier Deschamps’ approach with France, favoring control over the cavalier.
And up to a point it has worked. Statistically, he is the best manager England has had, reaching a World Cup semi-final and a Euro’s final. But now, he must realize that the pragmatic thing to do would be to change tack.
This England does not quite fit in the same mold. Their best players do not have ample experience playing defensive soccer. They seem unsure how to do so effectively. England already proved that sitting back after scoring invites pressure. Better teams have had no issue punishing England for this.
The lack of clarity in Southgate’s vision is visible too in the type of substitutes he has made already. Jarrod Bowen, Eberechi Eze, Conor Gallagher, Kobbie Mainoo, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon. Each featured in the group stage off the bench when things went awry. The range of players used suggests that not only does he not know his best starting XI. He is also unsure of which players he can rely on to change a game when needed.
He needs to be brave, perhaps uncharacteristically so. He brought Mainoo and Adam Wharton to the tournament for a reason. Now, he needs to start one of them to partner Declan Rice in midfield. To address the left-side issue, he can introduce Anthony Gordon to the team. The Newcastle star offers a direct line of attack down that side. Southgate could even move Bukayo Saka to the left-back position that he started his career in to help England at Euro 2024. Consequently, he would free up space for Cole Palmer on the right wing. Look at dropping Bellingham into a deeper position where he was previously so effective for both England and Borussia Dortmund.
Whatever move he makes he needs to do so quickly. This squad felt so united and so happy at the previous three tournaments. Euro 2024 has been without that interplayer connection. The attitude and spirit that Southgate worked so hard to cultivate among players and fans is slipping away. It’s now his job to ensure it returns and the best way to do that is with strong performances.
PHOTOS: IMAGO
