England lacked the “courage” and all-round performances required to win Euro 2024, according to the first assessments of the Three Lions’ campaign in Germany which ended in defeat to Spain on Sunday night.
Mikel Oyarzabal’s late goal secured a fourth Euros crown for La Roja and denied England their first, following Cole Palmer’s equaliser in Berlin to cancel out Nico Williams’ opener.
For England and manager Gareth Southgate, it was another painful defeat in the final three years after losing to Italy at Wembley.
Manager Southgate has received sharp criticism during the Euros for his style of play, with a generally cautious approach taken despite having the flair of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Palmer and more at his disposal.
Former England captain Alan Shearer praised Southgate for reaching another final having taken over with the team in dire straits, but stated that they have not delivered consistently enough in Germany.
He told BBC’s coverage: “Let’s look at the bigger picture, when Gareth started off England were in big trouble - remember that Iceland result. He’s dragged them from the very bottom to nearly a team that can be successful.
“But we had that three years ago, we’ve a better team now and a better squad now so expectations are higher. You’ve got to cope with that unfortunately and get over the line, getting to finals when you’ve got this quality of player and not winning it is not going to be good enough.
“There haven’t been enough performances. Spain play on the front foot, England probably had that in the first 30 minutes of the first game against Serbia and maybe a little bit in the quarter-final, and then of course in the semi-final. But we’ve not really seen enough of it.
“England have been a team of moments, when we’ve desperately needed a big player to produce something special - that’s when we’ve seen the best of England.
“They’ve got togetherness, the steel. But in terms of a full, better performance I think they’re better than what they’ve shown us.”
Palmer’s incredible arrival into the final from the bench marked another impactful substitution made by Southgate during England’s run but Rio Ferdinand was left asking why the best performances of the last few weeks have come after going a goal down.
He said: “Every fan would have been asking why have we waited until we go a goal down to let the shackles off and start going at them.
“It wasn’t really until Ollie Watkins came on and started pressing from the front, the two centre-backs I said at half-time had cigars out for most of that first half.
“Cole Palmer comes on, slots one home. But we’ve had to wait for so long, why should we have to wait for that long to be able to be on the front foot and be aggressive when we’ve got such quality players all over the park?”
He added: “Whenever these players win with their clubs, one of the main reasons is that they’re brave in the big moments. They take risks, they take chances - they don’t wait to go behind.
“When you win stuff, you have to had that courage. Lay it out there, roll the dice. You can’t always win from a conservative position.”
The questions have already begun over Southgate’s future and Ferdinand admitted that explanations were needed over how England set up to play at the Euros.
The ex-defender continued: “We said it after the group stage, if you’re going to play on the conservative side of things with the talent in this squad... you have to win.
“Otherwise it will be dissected as a negative approach, that falls on the manager’s toes. He sets the team out in a particular way to play and that’s his style of football, but you have to win playing like that.
“These players are too good, they play too well for their clubs to look a shadow of themselves [for England].”
