Gary Neville said Gareth Southgate must ‘find solutions’ to England’s underwhelming start to Euro 2024 or their tournament will end badly, as it has so many times before.
After an unconvincing win against Serbia, England laboured to a 1-1 draw against Denmark in their second Group C game on Thursday, and were outplayed by the 21st-ranked team in the world for long periods.
Yet again England were guilty of dropping deep, lacking tempo and failing to create significant opportunities despite possessing arguably the best frontline at the tournament.
Sky Sports pundit Neville called on Southgate to change things up with his squad to keep England – one of the pre-tournament favourites – from failing to challenge for the Henri Delaunay Trophy as they did at Euro 2020.
“It does feel like we’ve been here before,” he told ITV Sport. “It’s not a time for panic. I don’t think Gareth Southgate does panic but it is time for him to interfere and find solutions and change something because of three things we’ve seen in these first two games.
“We let them off [on Sunday] because it was the first game of the tournament, but when you see it for a second time, it becomes a pattern, and a pattern needs disrupting if it is negative.
“There’s an imbalance in the team, square pegs in round holes. Because of that you start to drop deep as a protective measure because you feel like you are not comfortable.
“Then the third thing occurs, which has happened to England over the years, and you can’t play out through midfield and play out from the back. You end up giving the ball away and we look like a mess.
“I and we know how this ends. He has to change something now.”
Neville questioned whether the attacking quality at Gareth Southgate’s disposal had, conversely, ended up limiting him and left him to shoehorn in players at the expense of England’s balance.
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Rob Dorsett delivers his verdict on England’s 1-1 draw with Denmark and believes there are real concerns for Gareth Southgate after another underwhelming performance at Euro 2024.
“It’s the first time I’ve felt like Gareth is slightly conflicted with this embarrassment of riches,” he added. “It’s the first time where you’re asking questions – how do you get Trent, Foden, Palmer and Bellingham into the team, and that’s causing him more problems than providing answers.
“That shouldn’t be the case, he has to look really closely in the next 24 hours, maybe let the players have a conversation with themselves as well, because we’ve talked about their spirit and accountability, but they’re not playing particularly well and need to sort themselves out.
“But from Gareth’s point of view, he needs to get on the training ground in a couple of days’ time and give them the answer moving forward. This ends badly the way in which it’s going.”
Keane: Trent not up to midfield task
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s foray into England’s midfield was once again under the spotlight, with the Liverpool man struggling in the position once again.
Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane called the decision from Southgate a “gamble” and argued Alexander-Arnold is not up to the task in midfield.
“When you’ve been taken off in the two games it is not a good sign,” Keane told ITV Sport. “I always thought it was a huge gamble to play a player who doesn’t play there week in, week out for his club.
“Midfield is a tough position physically and getting your distances. He’s come up short in both games.
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Kaveh Solhekol feels England were lucky not to lose their match against Denmark, adding that Trent Alexander-Arnold struggled in his midfield role
“It’s not all down to him. You’d have to probably put this on Gareth. It’s a huge gamble to throw a full-back into the middle of the park, and this is not against France, Germany or Spain which could be tougher tests ahead for England.
“This is against two teams that we thought England would be fairly comfortable against and have lots of possession.
“It was a big ask for Alexander-Arnold, and he’s not up to it.”
When England manager Gareth Southgate was asked about Alexander-Arnold by BBC Sport, he said: “Trent has had some moments where he’s delivered what we thought he would.
“It’s an experiment, we know we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips but we’re trying some different things – and at the moment we’re not flowing as we’d like.”
Neville: Rice is limited as holding midfielder
Neville also singled out the poor performance of Declan Rice and questioned whether the Arsenal man was playing in his right position as the deepest of England’s midfielders.
He pointed to Gunners boss Mikel Arteta’s decision to move Rice further forward in the final months of the domestic season and said Kobbie Mainoo or Adam Wharton may be the best solutions to operate in the holding role for the Three Lions.
“Mikel Arteta moved Declan Rice out of that position for the last 15 games of the season to bring Jorginho and Thomas Partey in because he’s not that good at playing in there,” he said.
“It’s the most nervous I’ve seen Rice and he’s a brilliant player. He’s better moving up the pitch.
“If you think about Toni Kroos and Rodri, these players that get the team playing. At Manchester United, it was Roy Keane and Paul Scholes. It’s Jorginho for Arsenal. Every team that is great has this type of player and we don’t seem to have that player.
“Kobbie Mainoo might be the one. There’s Adam Wharton who can do it. We have to resolve that problem and I’m not just talking about Gareth in this next four days, but I’m talking about England generally.
“We’ve never been able to get out from the back properly in moments of pressure.
“When Rice goes to receive the ball deep with his back to the play, I think he’s quite basic. I don’t think he’s as good as the other players who play that position.
“Where I think he’s brilliant is when he’s marauding forward, he’s running onto the game, he’s up on top of the game and he’s being aggressive.
“If you look at his touch map for Arsenal in the last part of the season, most of his touches are in that high left channel.
“I get that he’s got Jorgihno, Partey and full-backs pushing into midfield, but England haven’t got that balance in midfield.
“I do believe it’s a massive problem for England.”