I didn't have many positive comments after the match against Serbia but at least I had the opening 20 or so minutes to feel positive about. 20 minutes that I didn't get in yesterday's match. I was going to write a match report but I've been talking with other England fans this morning and feel like a rant instead.
Where to begin...
Our Opponents
Denmark are fairly highly regarded in the world of International Football, ranked 21st - alongside the likes of Iran, South Korea and Australia. Would we be happy with a 1-1 draw against any of those teams? Certainly not.
Starting XI
| Player | Club |
|---|---|
| Kasper Schmeichel (37) | Anderlecht |
| Jannik Vestergaard (31) | Leicester City |
| Andreas Christensen (28) | Barcelona |
| Joachim Andersen (28) | Crystal Palace |
| Joakim Mæhle (27) | Wolfsburg |
| Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (28) | Tottenham SUB |
| Morten Hjulmand (24) | Sporting Lisbon |
| Victor Kristiansen (21) | Bologna |
| Christian Eriksen (32) | Man Utd SUB |
| Jonas Wind (25) | Wolfsburg |
| Rasmus Højlund (21) | Man Utd |
With the exception of Andreas Christensen at Barcelona, there aren't any players that can be considered to be playing regularly at a big club and many of them aren't at a club playing European football. Half of their midfield don't even start regularly.
Compare this with the England team.
| Player | Club |
|---|---|
| Jordan Pickford (30) | Everton |
| Kyle Walker (34) | Man City |
| John Stones (30) | Man City |
| Marc Guéhi (23) | Crystal Palace |
| Kieran Trippier (33) | Newcastle |
| Trent Alexander-Arnold (25) | Liverpool |
| Declan Rice (25) | Arsenal |
| Bukayo Saka (22) | Arsenal |
| Jude Bellingham (20) | Real Madrid |
| Phil Foden (24) | Man City |
| Harry Kane (30) | Bayern Munich |
Not only are they at bigger clubs competing for major trophies (both domestically and in Europe), they're arguably each club's best players.
On paper, there's no comparison so why didn't England win?
Gareth Southgate's Tactics
If you haven't already done so, I recommend reading @reservedsingle's post: Euro 2024: Southgate's Gate - you'll see from my comment that I don't agree with everything but I certainly agree with the main theme.
Starting with a small detail - In Gareth Southgate's squad, he picked 1 Left Back. Man Utd's Luke Shaw who is permanently injured. So much so, that he's in Germany, injured. Paddy Power are renowned for taking the piss and their article (LUKE SHAW CUT FROM ENGLAND SQUAD AFTER BEING REFUSED TRAVEL INSURANCE) is a beautiful take on quite how injury prone he is. Even if you leave my post now to read Paddy Power's and don't return, it'll be worthwhile.
Instead of picking another left back - like the promising Tyrick Mitchell or the also permanently injured Luke Chilwell, Southgate took the opportunity to pick loads of Right Backs as usual and playing them everywhere. From my post of 2 years ago;
Normally, Southgate likes to name as many right backs as he can but with Reece James ruled out through injury and Kyle Walker having been out with injury since the beginning of October (an injury he's still carrying), I thought that he might be forced into leaving a few at home and picking more than one left back. But alas no, Southgate would rather pick an injured right back rather than take more than one left back - Walker being amongst the lucky four right backs.
Some people never learn.
It's not uncommon to select an underlapping right footed played to play left back and can be devastating when used effectively. But this requires a left winger who keeps the width - which Phil Foden doesn't do.
This problem is minor though and if we played to the teams strengths, we'd be lethal. Notice the core of the teams above - Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid... all teams that press high up the pitch and win back possession quickly.
Ok, that's not Harry Kane's strength - he's a goalscorer but he does it for Bayern so why not for England? In fact - why don't any of them do it for England??
Why does Harry Kane spend half the match defending England's 16 Yard Box??
This is turning into a rant. It was going to be a match summary so let's look at something interesting that the BBC shared at half time...
England Average Player Positions
Ok, not the greatest image but you'll get the gist.
In white - is the average position before the goal. In black, after.
Much deeper. Much narrower.
Harry Kane so deep that Foden was beyond him. Remember what I said about our Left Back? Foden so narrow that the right footed Left Back is providing the width. John Stones - renowned for his ability to bring the ball out from the back sitting so deep, he's barely left our own penalty area.
This is what naturally happens when you can't keep the ball. When your "out" (i.e. Harry Kane) has got so bored that he's defending so that he feels included - even when you do get the ball, there's nowhere to go. Their equaliser was inevitable and something desperately needed to change, so what does Southgate do...?
He brings on Conor Gallagher for Trent Alexander-Arnold. What's the fucking point Gareth?
We've got a No. 9 who's offering nothing. If he's coming deep, the wingers need to be running beyond him. They weren't.
Finally, after 70 minutes Ollie Watkins replaced Kane and things looked more interesting. But it was too late by this point and the Danes were so confident, they were rightfully disappointed not to have beaten us.
A bit extra... whilst looking for a suitable cover image, I also found this from Sky Sports...
Wow. It's rare to see a flat-back 9. Look where Harry Kane (FW) is.
What Next?
That entire article looks like it's worth a read so that's where I'll be heading next.
We've almost certainly qualified from the group which as Kyle Walker went to great lengths to point out was the objective. The fact that a win yesterday would've meant we'd topped the group seemed to be a fact that he'd missed.
Next up - Slovenia.
Normally, when I get this annoyed with how shit England are playing, they put in a performance in the next game. This is possible - we've already qualified so hopefully we'll see the likes of Ollie Watkins, Anthony Gordon and Jarrod Bowen given the opportunity to show what they've got.
But... if the tactic of scoring a goal and trying to defend it continues... we could have an attack of prime Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe and Zidane and still offer nothing.
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