Well, that was hard work. England have topped their group at Euro 2024, which is what we all expected them to do. Shame about the manner in which they have done it.
England are also not alone among the pre-tournament favourites in having looked oddly off-colour in the group stage: so far, there’s only really Spain, Germany and – to a lesser extent, but with one more group game still to play – Portugal who have been impressively at it since the tournament began.
We all look at that knockout bracket and imagine that the likes of France, the Netherlands and Italy will kick on from here, to the point that we are talking about which side of the draw you’d want to be on; yet the notion that England might do so feels like an impossibility. Such are the double-standards we all hold when it comes to our own teams.
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England's Euro 2024 issues give Gareth Southgate few obvious solutions
Perhaps not enough credit has gone to England’s opponents, either. We should not overlook that England have come up against three well-organised defensive outfits who were not exactly attacking powerhouses against one another, let alone when guarding against an England side that came into the tournament to much trumpeting about their wealth of options in the final third.
But this is all really devil’s advocacy at this stage. England’s players have unquestionably and bafflingly underperformed, and nobody quite seems to agree on why that should be the case or what Gareth Southgate can do to fix it.
Multiple explanations have been put forth for why England are struggling to dominate games, some of which stand up to scrutiny better than others.
It’s Trent Alexander-Arnold’s fault – except that they haven’t really looked any better when he’s not on the pitch. Harry Kane’s days of making runs in behind are in the past – except he was the top scorer in all of Europe last season. Gareth Southgate isn’t up to the job – except that he took England to the final of the last Euros.
More plausible is the notion that England’s issues are smaller and subtler, but more multifarious. ITV pundit Gary Neville spoke at half time of the notion that the players may lack a bit of familiarity with one another, while the commentators had noted that England lacked Harry Maguire’s presence at set pieces; a potent weapon that had often got the side going or even won the day when all else had failed for them over the past few years. Others had talked about how Phil Foden was ineffective playing in a more central role than he is accustomed to at Manchester City.
Football is increasingly about those kinds of small differences, so when you stack a few of them on top of one another, the effect can be cumulative. One or two minor malfunctions might go by without causing major problems, but too many and you’re looking at a systems-wide failure.
The issue for Southgate there is that the options for meaningful change are so limited. The issues primarily lie in the laboured work England are doing in their efforts to get into the final third, but each suggestion for how to improve that come with downsides that feel equally large.
Could John Stones move into midfield, as he has for Manchester City so often? Well, yes, but then who are you playing at centre-back? Move Kyle Walker inside? Alright, but is Alexander-Arnold going to be any better as a right-back, or are you going to get the same issues but in a position where his deficiencies are more likely to get ruthlessly exposed? Put Trippier there instead? Alright, enjoy your half-fit Luke Shaw at left-back, then.
It goes on. Move Jude Bellingham or Phil Foden back from their more attacking berths? Alright, but then how does that solve the issues in the England press that were so loudly criticised after the Denmark game? And by doing so, are you not just neutering the very attacking players you’re actually trying to find a way to enable?
The passage of time has a way of putting rose-tinted glasses on things, but amid all the pre-tournament hype of England’s many superstar talents, it’s hard not to feel that what England are actually missing is some of their more overlooked starters from previous tournaments.
More prosaic players like Maguire, Shaw, Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips are easy to poke fun at in isolation, but the reason managers often like those players more than the fans is because it is often players like that who make a disparate collection of talented players into a team. At club level, players who fit well into a certain system are increasingly prized over supposedly superior players who do not – and England have not looked like a team out in Germany so far, certainly not on the ball.
Nonetheless, they are through, and they are unbeaten, having conceded just one goal in their three games so far – and that was a 25-yarder that went in off the post.
The game changes in the knockout stages now. Cagey, tense games will be the expectation, not an unacceptable aberration – for every side, not just England. A scrappy, nervy 1-0 win or a shootout victory after a penalty shootout would be wildly celebrated, more than as a troubling sign of further issues to come.
Delivering that in the round of 16 could be just the spark of inspiration England have been looking for across their 270 minutes of belaboured effort so far…but it does still need to come.
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