England 1-1 Denmark: The One Where Everyone Forgot How To Play Football

There was a sense of expectation among England fans in the hours before kick-off in Frankfurt on Thursday. Having seen the points shared between Serbia and Slovenia in the 2pm kick-off, automatic qualification to the knockouts as group winners was in the hands of an England squad that, on paper, has more than enough quality to comfortably beat the likes of Denmark. Despite the underwhelming performance against Serbia in this year's opener, many expected the team to start to flex their muscles, record a convincing victory, and put out a message that they mean business. What transpired over the next 90 minutes was far from that, as fans of the Three Lions were subjected to a sloppy, cowardly, and borderline clueless performance which has put Southgate's men under serious scrutiny. Whilst qualification as group winners is still firmly England's to lose, it is clear that something has to change for the final group game against Slovenia next Tuesday. What went wrong?

"1-0 up is it lads? 11 Men Behind the Ball Then”

Once again, England took the lead early on through a neat finish by Harry Kane following a clever run up the left flank by Kyle Walker to take Victor Kristiansen by surprise. After a nervy opening 15, England broke the deadlock and surely we could relax. All credit to Denmark, they are an incredibly well-organised team with some quality players, but, if we're all being honest, this England team should be able to press home a 1-0 lead and it was almost expected that now, with the confidence brought by that early goal, England would do just that. Take a look at the average positions in the 15 minutes where England led below, courtesy of Sky Sports.

You'd be forgiven for mistaking this position map for a National League side away at the Etihad. If you can put aside the feeling of sheer disappointment at watching a side with some of the best players in the world play like this for a moment, you could argue that all we need to do is get the result, and there is merit in focusing on a more defensive approach, however boring it is.

One small issue, though. We still managed to concede within 15 minutes of going ahead (I know, I can't believe it either). Some sloppy defending and seemingly a complete dismissal of the basic principle of closing down players in acres of space on the edge of the box led to a great finish by Morten Hjulmand. What followed was 60 minutes of borderline nothing from England, in which the Three Lions offered little threat and looked to be begging for the final whistle come the end of normal time, as Denmark took control. Why?

The Problems

The first point I want to address is that it's clear Southgate has chosen to just get all the 'best players' on the pitch at the same time, perhaps to try and counter the scrutiny he has faced throughout his tenure, and to be fair, he can't win either way. There will always be someone who isn't picked who is then hailed as the only reason why we haven't won, and calls for Southgate to be hauled off to the Tower of London for life are then rampant (see: Fikayo Tomori, Jarrad Branthwaite, etc.).

What we've learned from these two performances is that ultimately, the system is more important than individuals. England now find themselves in a situation where neither the system nor the players seem to be working. It is all completely and utterly disjointed, and that is something that Southgate can be criticised for. A key example of this can be seen at both ends of the pitch. When Pickford receives the ball, players like Bellingham and Stones, who are used to playing in teams who control possession can actually be seen telling Pickford to knock it short, to the full backs. At the same time, Rice is always looking for it to go long, and that's what happened more often than not. Pickford attempted 17 (SEVENTEEN) long balls, only 4 of which were successful during this game. In comparison, against Hungary, Manuel Neuer attempted 2 long balls throughout the whole game, both of which were collected by a man in not-so-traditional Germany pink.

In my opinion, a lot of this is down to nerves within the England setup. Rice has spoken about having put 'too much pressure' on themselves to win this tournament, which I can understand to an extent. Everyone within the camp and watching from afar expects this golden generation to do something special, but this is justified. The fact is we're near favourites for a reason. The squad is full of world-beaters, we finished runners-up in the previous Euros, and we've gained a few more years of experience since then, as well as the addition of multiple talented youngsters. We shouldn't be nervous going into the second group game against a team that we (sorry, Denmark) should be beating comfortably, knowing that a win qualifies us as group winners. How this is solved, I'm not sure. I can only hope that some wholesale changes for the final group game results in a convincing victory, and we can start to build some momentum.

At the other end of the pitch, the press is completely disorganised and therefore completely pointless. It is the same result every time: a half-arsed press from Foden or Kane, while Rice and Trent stay in our own half, allowing Denmark to beat the lines easily and move up as a unit, while taking players out of the game. As well as a completely useless attempt at a press, the forward players have a lot of questions to answer after that performance. Here at El Chumbazo, there was a feeling that Foden was so poor in linkup play that the only conclusion we could come to was that he just does not want to pass the ball to anyone, sparking yet more debates about Foden's quality in a system that clearly does not suit him. Kane looks like a completely different player so far this tournament, to the extent where it is no longer blasphemous to suggest dropping the England captain.

The 'Experiment' has Failed, Gareth

Although a lot of the blame for this week's display of ineptitude does have to fall at the feet of the players, Southgate does not help himself, does he. The one thing you don't want to hear about the tactical approach to a competitive group stage game in a tournament where the very understandable aim is to emerge with our first trophy in 58 years is for it to be described as an 'experiment'. The best part is, that isn't even the worst thing he's said following the Denmark game. What do you mean we haven't been able to replicate Kalvin Phillips? Sorry, I must have misheard you there, can you repeat that? If you don't laugh, you'll cry etc.

Even if we take that at face value, that the Kalvin Phillips-role (something that has never been said before) is the most important part of Gareth's so-called system, I was under the impression that this would explain the well-deserved call-ups of Kobbie Mainoo and Adam Wharton. Instead of continuing to try and replicate Trent's form for Liverpool (where he still plays at right-back, by the way, and is able to impact the game by inverting into centre-midfield) by shoehorning him into a position where it is clear he doesn't function, maybe play one of the two lads who you've called up specifically to partner Rice? You could even drop Rice after that last game, play Wharton and Bellingham as the pivot, with Foden in the middle, where we might actually see something close to the Foden who has torn up the Premier League this year.

One Last Chance

Thankfully, England have one more group game to prove to us all that all hope is not lost. One thing is for sure, if the line-up is unchanged for Slovenia, maybe it's time to panic. Look out for El Chumbazo's writers' ideal line-ups in the preview to that one early next week. Until then, let's try forget about this one shall we?