Sort it out, Gareth Southgate! Winners and losers as England’s dire Denmark draw leaves manager facing tough questions over Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment and Cole Palmer’s absence
The Three Lions were lucky to leave Frankfurt with a point after being out-fought and out-thought by the Danes
England were self-appointed favourites to win Euro 2024 a few months ago, but two games into the tournament they look as if they were lucky to have qualified at all. Gareth Southgate’s side slugged their way to a 1-1 draw with Denmark, producing a display as ugly as the Frankfurt pitch that was being cut up under their feet.
If the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, then Gareth Southgate has a lot to answer for after fielding an identical starting XI to the team that had won 1-0 against Serbia in unconvincing fashion. At least in that game his lacklustre side could rely on the brilliance of Jude Bellingham. Here the Real Madrid maestro looked ordinary while Declan Rice and Harry Kane looked much below it.
Kane was responsible for giving England the lead and then surrendering it, albeit via an astonishing long-range hit from Morten Hjulmand, while Rice lacked authority, letting Denmark dominate the game.
The good news is that the point means England have a very good chance of making the knockout round. The bad news is that they will need to win their third Group C game against Slovenia to ensure they finish top and avoid facing Germany in the last 16, because this team in its current form does not look capable of beating anyone.
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Getty ImagesLOSER: England’s biggest stars
The English media love a scapegoat, but there were too many to chose from in Frankfurt, and all of them were the players who normally receive their adulation. Kane was a big disappointment, even though he scored. Aside from his close-range strike, he created barely any moments of danger and the goal was the only time he touched the ball inside the box in the first half.
The European Golden Shoe winner was also the main culprit for the Danish equaliser, making a misguided cross-field ball which was gobbled up by Victor Kristiansen. He was not helped by the slow reactions of Bellingham, who did not read the pass properly and let Kristiansen get to it first, or Rice, who should have been quicker to close down Hjulmand.
Bellingham had a hand in setting up England’s goal and in some of the better moves in the second half, but he was a shadow of the player who dominated against Serbia. Rice played even worse, looking shorn of confidence and passing accuracy.
It’s bad enough that England have an imperfect squad short on left-backs and experienced defenders, so it was deeply disappointing that the players they normally rely upon played so poorly.
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Getty ImagesWINNER: Southgate haters
This was a match to further infuriate those who have long lost faith in the England manager and which could alienate his remaining backers. Southgate had already baffled plenty of supporters by picking the same line-up which had crawled to victory against Serbia, and the Danes, who are more experienced, more wily and have more quality than England’s last opponents, took full advantage.
Alan Shearer is not usually a man for bold takes, but he was left furious after the match as he struggled to make sense of how an England side containing so much star-quality could play so poorly.
“Gareth Southgate will get serious questions,” said the former England striker on the BBC. “You see the players out there…Phil Foden and what he has done all season for Manchester City, Jude Bellingham turning up in the first game and not so much tonight, John Stones and what we have seen him do at club level. There is far more to get out of those players than he is getting at the moment.”
Many fans watching on television would have agreed with him. If the Serbia game could be excused due to the usual jitters that accompany the first outing in a tournament, it was much harder to explain this abject performance other than to say it spoke of a manager who does not know how to get his ultra-talented team to click.
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Getty ImagesLOSER: Alexander-Arnold in midfield
Trent Alexander-Arnold was expected to lose his place in the team for Conor Gallagher after a hit-and-miss performance against Serbia, in which his off-the-ball work came in for sharp criticism. But to much surprise, Southgate picked him again in midfield. And he performed even worse, demonstrating why his former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was so reluctant to move him permanently from right-back to midfield.
The Liverpool man’s passing was poor, losing the ball on five occasions before being hauled off in the 54th minute for Conor Gallagher. Curiously, though, he did play the most line-breaking passes in the final third and created more chances than any other England player.
But the overall effect was that Denmark dominated midfield and England did seem to improve when he came off. The experiment cannot continue against Slovenia.
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Getty ImagesLOSER: Cole Palmer & Anthony Gordon
As England looked ever more desperate and Southgate used four of his substitutes without getting the desired effect, Anthony Gordon and Cole Palmer must have wondered what they needed to do to get on the pitch.
The two forwards were the top-performing English players in the Premier League behind Foden this past season, contributing a combined 33 goals and 21 assists for Newcastle and Chelsea, respectively. But neither of them have seen the pitch yet in this tournament.
Gordon demonstrated pace and trickery in the friendly defeat by Iceland, albeit his final ball was lacking, while Palmer had also shown flashes of brilliance in that match and against Bosnia & Herzegovina. They had each offered more than what their fellow attackers have produced out in Germany and they both deserve to be involved, at the very least from the bench, against Slovenia.
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Getty ImagesWINNER: Morten Hjulmand
Hjulmand would not have been on the radar of many England fans ahead of this match as he was not in the Denmark squad at the last Euros or the 2022 World Cup. But they will find it hard to forget the thunderbolt he unleashed which emphatically pulled the Danes back into the game and gave the Three Lions a shake they barely recovered from.
Hjulmand, who helped Sporting CP claim the Portuguese title last season, made the most of the opportunity Kane’s wild pass had given his side, taking one touch after Kristiansen’s lay-off and sending the ball crashing in off the past beyond a helpless Jordan Pickford.
His goal was the latest in a series of unstoppable rockets which have landed in the net at Euro 2024, the 13th goal from outside the box, as many as in the entirety of the group stage at the previous tournament.
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Getty ImagesLOSER: The ground staff
The state of the pitch at the Deutsche Bank Arena was the only thing more ragged than England’s performance. The grass kept on cutting up and Kyle Walker had an early scare when he slipped over on the turf and had to change his boots. Marc Guehi slipped over soon after, as did Jarrod Bowen when he came off the bench.
It was a miracle that no one got injured, and former England defender Rio Ferdinand commented that the players looked like they were wearing roller skates on the BBC. It made for an uninspiring, bitty game in which neither side managed to move the ball around with any fluidity.
It simply wasn’t good enough for a match of such importance and was another example of the infrastructure in Germany being way below what was expected for the tournament.
Source Goal.com
