•England look like 11 talented football players who have never played as a team before.
•Phillips’ lack of game time at Manchester City and loss of form since leaving Leeds ruled him out of a place in the squad while concerns over Henderson’s fitness saw Southgate decide not to take him to Germany.
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Although there is still time for England to salvage something from the European Championship and they remain favourites to progress into the knockout stages of the tournament, the feeling is that there is simply too much work to be done for this team to challenge for the title.
If the 1-0 win against Serbia set alarm bells ringing with the way England sat back and let an average rival dominate most of the second half, Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Denmark has added sirens and flashing red lights to warn of the danger ahead.
Put simply, England look like 11 talented football players who have never played as a team before and coach Gareth Southgate seems to be a man who has run out of ideas and direction.
In fairness to Southgate, he has been handicapped by injury to Luke Shaw, who is still not match-fit despite being included in the 26-man squad.
That has forced the coach to use the right-footed Kieran Trippier as a makeshift left-back with the obvious handicap that the player’s natural right-footed instinct forces him to cut inside or to play backward.
Compounding this problem is that Phil Foden is playing ahead of Trippier on the left and the latter’s instincts are also to move infield as he is much happier in a role behind the striker.
That is where Foden has shone for Manchester City but the presence of Jude Bellingham in an advanced midfield role means Southgate is trying to force square pegs into round holes with a ‘best 11’ that may not necessarily be his best team.
Compare England’s labouring down the left on Thursday with the way Spain’s Marc Cucurella and Nico Williams tormented Italy down the same flank.
Cucurella was willing to make runs outside Williams, drawing a defender and creating space while Trippier and Foden only served to move inside and leave England looking cramped in attack and vulnerable in defence. But it’s not just the left side, where England have struggled.
At the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2020, Declan Rice was partnered by Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips, who provided balance in the middle.
Phillips’ lack of game time at Manchester City and loss of form since leaving Leeds ruled him out of a place in the squad while concerns over Henderson’s fitness saw Southgate decide not to take him to Germany.
Although the absence of the pair is completely logical, England have not found a replacement to partner Rice. Southgate persisted with using Trent Alexander- Arnold — nominally a right-back— there on Thursday, despite the experiment not working in practice games or against Serbia, and it didn’t work against Denmark either.
While the Danes found space in the middle for quick passing moves, England players struggled to find a nearby teammate to pass to, with England’s attacks reduced to individual runs down dead-end streets.
Alexander-Arnold has struggled both defensively and to combine in attacking moves against Denmark. This affected Rice and Bellingham, both of whom also had poor games.
There are more natural midfielders such as Adam Wharton and Kobbie Mainoo in the squad while Conor Gallagher added energy, if not precision, when he came into the game just 10 minutes into the second half.
If England are to improve, Southgate has to find a way to bring balance into his, and that means either trusting in the inexperienced but more natural central midfielders Mainoo and Wharton or being brave and dropping Bellingham’s deeper partner Rice, moving Foden into the middle and using Anthony Gordon, who is left-footed, on the left wing and if Shaw can be match fit, that would also help.
The solution seems obvious and the question has to be asked: Southgate has been in charge of England for a long time and has generally done a good job —why hasn’t he been able to see it?