Euro 2024, day seven
Euro 2024, day seven
England make me angry, Spain do not
Hi, everyone. This was a big day for both establishing a new serious contender for the tournament, and making me very frustrated at all the reasons why that team was not England. This post is completely free to read, thanks to the sponsor, Immaculate Footy England. More on them later. For now, let’s get into the football.
Slovenia 1-1 Serbia
To be honest I don’t have a great deal to say about this one, probably because I should have written this section at the time instead of waiting until the evening, and I think most of you are here for the other two games, but Slovenia were good for long stretches of this.
Benjamin “Why You’re Watching A Slovenia Game” Šeško was pretty good, though he didn’t shine in the way people probably hoped. He’s pretty involved for a striker, and they got plenty from him even if he never had a brilliant chance. Serbia just have a lot more players that your average football fan might know about. Aleksandar Mitrović was constantly causing problems as the central threat that Serbia’s direct attacks and crossing ran through. I’m absolutely not having anyone question this performance from him. Dušan Vlahović was barely a threat, and no one cares because he didn’t get a good compilation of misses. Anyway, this was a pretty good game. Serbia really need a big result against Denmark now. Slovenia have to be hoping England don’t click yet for at least another game.
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Denmark 1-1 England
For all the deserved “sufferball” talk, I strongly believe what we’ve seen in these two games is not how Gareth Southgate wants to be playing.
That’s a big change from 2018, 2021 and 2022. In all three of those tournaments, England had a plan and broadly executed it. Even if the football wasn’t always great, England were filling the template the manager wanted. I don’t think that’s happening here.
I actually think England played their best football in 2022, and were unlucky to go out to an excellent France team who they basically matched on the night in terms of performance level. Of the team that drew with Denmark, eight started that match against France in Qatar: Jordan Pickford, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Harry Kane. England look worse in this tournament than they did back then. So what’s changed?
Marc Guéhi has replaced Harry Maguire, but I don’t think that’s been a problem at all. Kieran Tripper has replaced Luke Shaw, and that’s definitely part of the problem. The team obviously needs someone overlapping on the left, and I cannot believe Southgate hasn’t changed things without Shaw. Just look at the heatmap of England’s touches against Denmark, per WhoScored. Notice which part of the pitch is missing? England have no left flank!
Of course, the other part of that is Foden’s positioning. I cannot believe how often the BBC broadcast of this game praised the move of having him come inside to midfield. It’s as though winning football matches is less important than getting the best out of Foden. Let’s look at his touch map against France in 2022.
He went over to the right flank towards the end of the game, but he spend most of the match in wide areas on the left. Now look at his touches against Denmark:
He’s clearly spending a lot more time in central areas. I’m sure this is what Foden is asking for. It’s what everyone thinks he should be doing. Pundits in the British media go on and on about how Foden is such a brilliant playmaker and that’s what he needs to be doing for this time. To which I just have to ask: have you actually watched him play football? Foden receives the ball quickly in space, dribbles forward, then scores and assists goals in the final third. He’s not a playmaker! He’s an excellent attacking outlet. For some reason everyone wants him to be a completely different type of player. As Wagatha Christie Lawyer (real name, I’m sure) said in our Discord server, “it’s not even a question of ‘how do we get the best out of Foden’, but ‘how do we get the best out of a fictional character we’re trying to manifest’”.
For the love of god, just tell him to stay wide. He’s a player who follows instructions very well. Pep Guardiola trusts him in a number of roles because he can understand the requirements and do exactly what’s asked of him. But you have to give him a role, first. He’s not a player who needs “freedom”. You’ve never watched him play a single senior club match where he played with freedom. Stop indulging this and tell him to get chalk on his boots.
The other big change is Trent Alexander-Arnold. His former Liverpool teammate Jordan Henderson played in Qatar, and they are, to put it mildly, very different players. That doesn’t seem to have been considered. As Neel Shelat put it on Twitter, “I feel like [Alexander-Arnold] has spent more time ahead of the ball than behind it during England possessions, which is just incredibly stupid”. In turn, Rice seemed to be receiving the ball in the deepest areas and looking uncomfortable. I don’t understand what’s happening here. No one seemed to be doing the basics of structure. Everyone was just cramming into the same zones. Stupid.
I’m being very critical here because England are virtually through. They can relax now. I don’t think Denmark were incredibly impressive here, but it was enough for a point. They just need to turn up against Serbia and get it done. England will go through, but it’s fair to say there’s work to do.
Spain 1-0 Italy
Don’t let the scoreline fool you. Spain absolutely destroyed Italy here.
Watching this Spain performance after that England performance felt like a lesson in how to exploit the space out wide. Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal stay wide and offer direct running. The balance is so much better for it. Current manager Luis de la Fuente “wants to be a bit more direct, using possession always to damage the opponent”, according to Rodri. They look much better for it. They controlled the space very well against Italy because they always cover both flanks now. They can change the pace quickly with that directness.
This was really the Williams show. They were getting it to both flanks, but Williams was the guy you wanted on the ball. He was the person who could receive the ball in space and run at teams. It’s a different dimension to this team and, as someone who loves nothing more than direct wingers running at defenders, I’m delighted to see it.
Italy… played a game of football here? Apparently? They left so little impact that I’m not sure. They should still go through anyway, but they were so easily dominated here that I feel like selling all stocks in Luciano Spalletti’s side. I am impressed with one Mediterranean team today.
Questions for tomorrow
Slovakia vs Ukraine: Slovakia basically blagged a result against Belgium. Anything real here?
Poland vs Austria: Robert Lewandowski is back! Is he really fit? We’ll find out!
Netherlands vs France: Is Ronald Koeman going to make this the worst football match you’ve watched in your life? Will France have a way to break down a low block? Or will Kylian Mbappé just do something so it won’t matter?
Until then! Thanks again to Immaculate Footy England.