SAD NEWS: It Is With Heavy Heart That England Announce The Passing Away of ”Gareth Southgate” Who was Involved in a Horrible…

It’s not how you start, but where you end up.

Although England’s two performances at Euro 2024 have been far from satisfactory, it’s crucial to remember not to discard the baby with the bathwater. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar after defeating Iran and drawing 0-0 with the United States in their opening two games.

And at Euro 2020, they took four points again from a solid but unspectacular win against Croatia and another 0-0 draw with Scotland – and they went on to reach the final. So while I can understand the negativity, and there was a torrent of it on Six-0-Six on Thursday night, there is no need to panic.

They have four points from two games again. I have no doubt England will qualify for the knockout stage, and they will probably top the group. But they may have to sacrifice one or two big hitters, either by starting with them on the bench or changing things up after 60 minutes, to get the balance right.

So far, they bring back memories of the days when Sven-Goran Eriksson had to make room for Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the middle, so he placed Paul Scholes on the left side. If you don’t play your greatest players in their optimal positions, you won’t get the most out of them.

But Kieran Trippier, a right-back, has been playing left-back, Phil Foden has been playing on the left when he is most effective in the middle and the experiment of playing Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield hasn’t worked.

I think the omission of Marcus Rashford from the squad looks more like a mistake by the day because his pace would have been such an asset in a side which has looked too static. You can’t manufacture pace, you can’t go out and buy it off the shelf at your local supermarket. As a player, I always hated being up against pace – because if you can’t catch an opponent, you are always struggling.