England were undoubtedly one of the major tournament favourites entering UEFA Euro 2024, with Harry Kane finishing the season as the German Bundesliga’s top scorer after his first season with FC Bayern on 36 league goals, Jude Bellingham finishing the 2023/24 club campaign as a key player for the UEFA Champions League winners and Phil Foden enjoying arguably his best individual campaign for Manchester City as he helped his side win a fourth straight Premier League title to name a few of the stars England fans will have been salivating at seeing play together for their country this summer.
However, those fans will have been left quite underwhelmed after the Three Lions’ first two games of the Euros resulted in performances that were far from convincing in contrast to the likes of Germany and Spain, who have started the tournament in fierce form.
Gareth Southgate has thus far failed to get the best out of any of his key players. In terms of tactics, a lot of questions have been raised as it pertains to his decisions in midfield, and if the selections look dubious on paper, their performances on the pitch have done little to inspire confidence in the manager’s choices; England’s play has looked very disjointed and massively lacked cohesion for the most part.
This tactical analysis piece, a team-focused scout report, aims to pinpoint exactly what England’s main issues are and suggest what they must do to improve. If they could conceivably turn things around and improve their performance levels, they could realistically challenge the likes of Spain and Germany for Euros glory this summer.
Too many players dropping deep
As the title of this section suggests, one of England’s main issues has been the tendency of too many of their players to drop deep, leaving nobody in positions to receive progressive passes ahead.
Firstly, a look at figure 1 roughly outlines how England have set up, playing from left to right, in possession thus far in the Euros.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been deployed to the right of Declan Rice in the double-pivot, with Jude Bellingham as the ‘10’ in between Phil Foden (left), Bukayo Saka (right) and Harry Kane just ahead in the centre-forward position.
