Say what you like about English football but you can never accuse it of not being firmly wedded to tradition. On Thursday in Frankfurt, Gareth Southgate's national team upheld an inauspicious one: laying an egg in the second group game of a major tournament.
Spin it back to Glenn Hoddle's talent-stacked squad losing to Romania at the 1998 World Cup, or Sven-Goran Eriksson's 2006 vintage labouring to a horrid 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago. Steve McClaren would probably have contributed one at Euro 2008 if he'd bothered qualifying.
Southgate went off message when his England demolished Panama 6-1 in their second game at the 2018 World Cup. However, the 0-0 draws with Scotland and the United States at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup featured more than enough drudgery to fit into this lineage.
Which brings us to the 1-1 draw with Denmark at Deutsche Bank Park, where England were ponderous before taking the lead through Harry Kane and frankly awful thereafter.
MORE: England's dreadful Denmark performance as it happened
What makes this an unprecedented major tournament pressure point for Southgate is that the Scotland and USA downturns followed impressive performances and wins over Croatia and Iran respectively. In Germany, a coach who has offset his limitations with meticulous clarity and planning seems to be shambling around with no strategy in or out of possession.
That's a lot to fix before facing Slovenia in Cologne on June 25 and the probable knockout campaign to follow. Dreaming the whole thing up again from scratch would be like chucking Trent Alexander-Arnold into midfield on the hoof for a Euros. And no sane person would do that, right?
Handily, Southgate has a few well-worn tactical plans from his eight years in charge and one of those can be dusted off for the reset.
Three ways for Gareth Southgate to solve England's Euro 2024 problems
Here are three ideas for Southgate to ponder as he attempts to steer England back on track and justify their tag as pre-tournament favourites.
Option 1: Keep Calm and Carry On
4-3-3: Pickford — Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier — Gallagher, Bellingham, Rice — Saka, Kane, Foden.
Not a sexy solution but a very 'Southgatian' one. This would annoy people. It's one change, Conor Gallagher for Alexander-Arnold — the change made during the second half of both games so far, with the Chelsea midfielder's 54th-minute introduction against Denmark surely heralding the end of the Trent "experiment" (Southgate's word, not mine).
But it addresses one of England's major issues. Their pressing has lacked intensity and coherence. Denmark serenely played their way into opposition territory time and again. With the greatest respect to Kasper Hjulmand's side, if England let that happen against better teams in the knockout stages, they're going to get torn to pieces.
England Pressing v Denmark
— Tactx (@Tactx_) June 21, 2024
- heavily outnumbered in advanced positions
- duel roles for Saka, Foden and Bellingham
- lack of pressing support from Rice and Trent
- large distances to cover to get pressure on the ballpic.twitter.com/vBfo93soNb
"We know with the profile of players that we've got we don't feel the way to press is really high up the pitch," Southgate said afterwards. "I don't think that's the physical level of the team at the moment, either."
The second half of that is another tale as old as time: English footballers reaching a major tournament exhausted from the brutal realities of a season in the Premier League. Perhaps there's no workaround for that and the mid-season 2022 World Cup in Qatar will forever remain the Three Lions' great "what if".
But the profile of the players? Well, here's the top five in the Premier League for winning the ball back in the final third in 2023/24. Notice anything?
| Player | Possession won in final 1/3 |
| Martin Odegaard | 41 |
| Conor Gallagher | 39 |
| Bukayo Saka | 37 |
| Phil Foden | 35 |
| Bruno Fernandes | 34 |
Right! And the joint-second on this metric in La Liga, with (an admittedly lower) 29? Yep, it's Jude Bellingham.
England's campaign in Qatar moved up a gear when Jordan Henderson was selected in a midfield three alongside Bellingham and Rice. The former Liverpool captain expertly bolstered the press and England were a well-balanced team that exploited transitions expertly, most notably in the 3-0 win over Senegal when Henderson opened the scoring.
Chelsea captain Gallagher is the closest thing in terms of industry and leadership qualities. He is not as accomplished a footballer as Henderson was at his peak (a peak that had come and gone by the time he arrived in Qatar) but he is no mug.
However, another reason this England setup worked was Luke Shaw's performances as an attacking left-back. Shaw is in Germany but still building fitness after his latest injury lay-off at Manchester United. His club boss Erik ten Hag said last week he does not expect the 28-year-old to feature until the knockout rounds, and Shaw did not even make the bench against Denmark. Until England's one natural left-back is fit — a frankly preposterous scenario in a 26-man squad — a lack of balance must be addressed in other ways.
MORE: Euro 2024 schedule and results, updated LIVE | Who will win Euro 2024? Latest odds and predictions | How to watch all the Euro 2024 action
Option 2: Vote Southgate!
4-2-1-3: Pickford — Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier — Bellingham, Rice — Foden — Saka, Kane, Gordon.
As the public back home in the UK wade through a General Election campaign, this XI would probably help Southgate to find the most favour with his constituency. He needs it too after a post-match pronouncement at which even his country's gaffe-prone Prime Minster Rishi Sunak might have rolled his eyes.
"We know that we don't have a natural replacement for a Kalvin Phillips but we're trying some different things. At the moment we're not flowing as we'd like, that's for sure."
An online meltdown ensued. That's why he's in the headline (a little peak behind the curtain for you there, folks). But — and please don't throw your phone/laptop through the window — Southgate has a point.
English football has always struggled to produce deep-lying midfielders who can control a game and set a tempo. Those who look like they have the technical proficiency to do just that often end up being moved further forward by elite coaching to harness their more game-breaking "English" attributes. For examples of this, look no further than Rice and Bellingham's best performances for Arsenal and Real Madrid this past season.
But unless Southgate places his full faith in Kobbie Mainoo or Adam Wharton, something worth exploring but seemingly unlikely at this juncture, then Rice and Bellingham working things out for themselves in the engine room feels like a better option than whatever is going on at the moment. This isn't a fit of Gerrard-Lampard amnesia, honestly.
Rice excelled for Arsenal with Jorginho or Thomas Partey behind him during the second half of the season but also played enough games as a lone holding midfielder. Bellingham was a sensation as a goalscoring No. 10 in his debut season at the Santiago Bernabeu, but he had never played this position before and is unlikely to do so again with his club ("Kylian, just shift out of the way for Jude, will you mate?" Can you imagine?).
Also, Bellingham's brief at the tip of a midfield diamond behind split strikers Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior is vastly different to playing off Kane, a classical centre-forward who enjoys dropping deep. Bellingham has created one chance for England in two games at Euro 2024; the 20-year-old averaged 1.95 per 90 minutes across 39 appearances for Madrid in 2023/24. At the European Championship, his averages for interceptions and recoveries are also down despite a much smaller sample size.
You can't move for pundits falling over themselves to praise Bellingham's maturity and temperament. These qualities and the versatility shown throughout his young career mean he can drop deeper into the engine room, where he can better influence games for this England team. He did so in Qatar, where Phillips made one substitute appearance as the effects of his Manchester City ordeal began to take hold.
A midfield trio of Rice, Bellingham and Phil Foden has long been the stuff of pub room fantasy in England, but it's probably time for Southgate to indulge. Last November, he was criticised for effectively saying Foden was not fully trusted to play centrally at City, despite this also broadly being Pep Guardiola's view. A significant shift has happened since then, with Foden growing in stature and adding different gears and tempos to his game. As Kevin De Bruyne struggled for form and fitness last term, he was the main man for the best team in England.
At Euro 2024, Foden has been granted a license to move inside, but that has been to join a midfield often in too much of a muddle to pass to him and at the expense of any penetration down the left flank. This, in turn, hurts Kane.
The England skipper has been at his best for the Three Lions, Tottenham and now Bayern Munich when he has runners getting behind and beyond him. He greatly misses an on-song Raheem Sterling at international level. To echo the Gallagher-for-Henderson argument above, Newcastle United's Anthony Gordon — a pacey, intelligent presser who can cross with both feet — is the most like-for-like alternative in Southgate's lopsided squad. It's weird that Gordon is yet to play a minute at the Euros.
MORE: Euro 2024 schedule and results, updated LIVE | Who will win Euro 2024? Latest odds and predictions | How to watch all the Euro 2024 action
Option 3: The Wildcard
3-2-4-1: Pickford — Walker, Stones, Guehi — Wharton, Rice — Alexander-Arnold, Foden, Bellingham, Saka — Kane.
It would be no surprise to see Southgate pondering a switch to three centre-backs. It's a system he knows well and used frequently before ditching it on the eve of Qatar. He implemented it with the sort of clear messaging that seems entirely lacking from what England have tried at Euro 2024.
England played it throughout their run to the 2018 World Cup semifinals and switched to it to fine effect to dispatch Germany at Euro 2020, although less so when Southgate reverted to 3-4-3 for the final against Italy.
In terms of what a similar reshuffle might have going for it at Euro 2024, it avoids Alexander-Arnold being hung out to dry. It's not his fault he's failed to morph into the Scouse Andrea Pirlo in the space of two games. Maybe picking a lavishly gifted player to operate in areas where he habitually excels for his club might be a thing to do. Kyle Walker on the right of the back three would mitigate against fears over Alexander-Arnold's defensive shortcomings.
We've also found space in this team for Wharton, the Crystal Palace youngster with with half a season of Premier League football behind him who just might be… wait for it… the new Kalvin Phillips. Wharton is a wonderfully assured footballer with a huge future ahead of him. But if he or Mainoo are going to find a spot in this England team, it's now or never. It's hard to envisage them getting a first start in a quarterfinal, for example. Southgate might be more inclined to play either youngster in his old safety blanket formation with experienced heads around them.
Okay, fine. You've spotted it. That is Bukayo Saka at left wingback. He played three games there for England in 2022, you know? Yeah, they lost all three. Whatever.
This might be a smartass way of highlighting the folly of Southgate picking a team with one natural and crocked left-back and one natural left winger. Saka is at least naturally left-footed and one of the most exciting dribblers in world football. The Wharton-enhanced midfield could ensure England play most of the game in opposition territory, leaving Saka to buzz around outside and link with Foden and Bellingham.
Cor, it could be fun. And that might be the biggest missing ingredient of this Southgate campaign. For the first time under his management, watching England in a major tournament has become an infuriating chore rather than an exciting adventure.
