Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Gareth Southgate and his Three Lions team, they are again the outright favourites to win Euro 2024.
England are 4/1 to win Euro 2024 with William Hill.
The reason? Maybe it's the scintillating brand of football that England are playing, or more likely it's down to the fact that England are on the opposite side of the draw to Spain, Portugal, France and Germany.
England has been poor. But in isolation, was the performance against Slovenia really that bad? The Slovenians set up to defend for 90 minutes. They were very disciplined and well-organised. Many sides would have struggled to break them down.
England and Slovenia share the points 🤝
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 25, 2024
England top Group C 🏴#EURO2024 | #ENGSVN pic.twitter.com/VtUAncDydS
Throw in the second half against Serbia and the match with Denmark and it makes Tuesday’s 0-0 draw look a lot worse than it probably was.
Moving forward
We all think we're better managers than Gareth Southgate. But here’s a massive problem that I’d challenge anybody to find a solution to.
The bottom line is that too many England players look out of form, and we’re talking front-line players like Kyle Walker, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. All have been poor in the group stages. But Southgate can’t and won’t drop them. And let’s face it, who would?
Against Slovenia, Southgate made a change at halftime when he replaced Conor Gallagher with Kobbie Mainoo. He also made more attacking changes in the second half. The only criticism is that maybe they could have been made earlier.
Southgate needs to stop trying to please everyone. He will probably be gone at the end of this competition. So why not go out on his own terms?
The draw has opened up for England. Yes, they don't look to be playing well enough to beat the top nations. But they may only have to play one or two. And on a given night, England can beat anyone.
All is not lost just yet.