There is nothing worse for a coach than making talent inconsequential. And that is what England coach Gareth Southgate has achieved in the first two games. If he won the first one by scraping Serbia, the second he tied 1-1 against a Denmark that he could barely beat because the cradle of football is empty of the game. This England is an unnatural amalgamation of footballers and positions that does not know how or where to attack. With four points, it is normal for England to be in the second round, but a combative Denmark took their colors.
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Kasper Schmeichel, Andreas Christensen, Joachim Andersen, Jannik Vestergaard, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Victor Kristiansen, Morten Hjulmand, Joakim Mæhle, Jonas Wind, Christian Eriksen, Rasmus Højlund, Alexander Bah (Victor Kristiansen, min. 56), Mikkel Damsgaard (Jonas Wind, min. 56), Yussuf Poulsen (Rasmus Højlund, min. 66), Andreas Skov Olsen (Christian Eriksen, min. 81) and Christian Nørgaard (Morten Hjulmand, min. 81)
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Jordan Pickford, Marc Guéhi, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, John Stones, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Conor Gallagher (Trent Alexander-Arnold, min. 53), Eberechi Eze (Bukayo Saka, min. 68), Jarrod Bowen (Phil Foden, min. 68) and Ollie Watkins (Harry Kane, min. 69)
Goals
0-1 min. 17: Kane. 1-1 min. 33: Morten Hjulmand
Referee Artur Manuel Ribeiro Soares Dias
Vestergaard (min. 26), Conor Gallagher (min. 60), Joakim Maehle (min. 72), Christian Nørgaard (min. 86)
This England is not looking good for now. He has more names than a plan due to the coaching attack with which Southgate has presented himself in Germany. He has entered this Euro Cup with an invention that did not work against Serbia, despite the victory, and it did not work either. The decision to convert Arnold into a midfielder because he has a good passing stroke not only condemns a deep winger, it also denatures everything right at the heart of creation. Arnold lost the first ball he touched and on the second he forced a turnover by executing a poor delivery. This is England with Arnold at the helm. It is not known if Bellingham is a playmaker, second striker, point guard or attacking midfielder. England was an individual chaos. Foden and There wasn’t either, because neither Trippier nor Walker stepped up to support them. Not even Harry Kane’s early goal gave him a chance. Kane scored his goal as a predator from the area, which is what he is there for. The man plays to try to make crumbs profitable. And he fell one after Kristiansen trusted himself in a control near the peak of the area and did not realize that Kyle Walker was coming from behind at full speed and snorting. Walker’s pass was not clean, to the desperation of Kane, who was waiting for him unmarked. The Bayern scorer used that instinct that predicts that the ball will end up falling to him in the place he occupies in the area. He moved a meter away from the pile of legs and there was the ball for him to push.
The stumble of the play described that pasty England that had taken the lead on the scoreboard without a grimace of greatness. Denmark, better built, realized that this England has more packaging than game. His three central defenders, the Barça player Christensen, Andersen and Vestegaard, were impossible for Kane and his midfielders began to win duels and send signals to Eriksen, Wind and Hojlund that he had left. The Danish equalizer was another nonsense that described this frayed and broken England. Kane went down to the vicinity of Pickford’s area to take a throw-in. The pass from him to the middle went into the void. There was not an Englishman within five meters. Hujlmand was there, and he unleashed a shot from the edge of the area that slipped to Pickford’s right after violently hitting the post stump. A great goal that only accentuated all of England’s flaws.
Foden maradoneó in the central circle successfully and darted towards the area. To his left, Kane accompanied him ahead along a free hallway. Foden ignored him and opted for a complex shot on goal. His captain reproached him for his individualism.
England and Denmark do not seem to have a solid plan, with the simplicity of knowing what they were playing, they went to half-time feeling that they could leave the Frankfurt Arena unscathed. Southgate had to give up his idea that Arnold could play as a midfielder before the hour mark. Gallagher replaced him and the Chelsea midfielder brought some order. Foden was encouraged with another burst that culminated with a shot that repelled the post. There was not much more from England, decapitalized when Southgate sat Foden himself, Xaka and Kane. The English captain couldn’t believe it. The entry of Watkins, Bowen and Eze did nothing more than load the area without any sense. A piece of cake for the defense of Denmark. If the Danes had been finer in the last passes of their transitions when England attacked headlessly, the debacle for Southgate and his players would have been greater.
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