PLAYER REVIEWS PART 2: ENGLAND, EURO 2024
Completing the run down of Gareth Southgate's final squad
Part one of the rundown can be found here…
Jude Bellingham: It all started so well with an early goal vs Serbia allied to an all-action first half where he was comfortably the best player on the park. But thereafter this was a tournament of fits and starts for the Real Madrid man; anonymous and slack in possession in the remaining group games against Denmark and Slovenia, and arguably fortunate to have remained on the pitch for long enough to score his comic book style equaliser against Slovakia (which will of course now go down as one of the iconic England tournament goals…funny how it works out sometimes). His role appeared to be ill-defined and there was precious little in the way of link up play with Harry Kane ahead of him. Clearly he’s already a world class talent, but this won’t go down as a vintage display from him - he’ll want to produce more at the World Cup.
Phil Foden: From perhaps La Liga’s best player of 2023/24 to the Premier League player of the season…and even less of an impact. Initially deployed on the left of what approximated a three man attacking midfield behind Kane, he struggled to get into games and had virtually no influence; a shot off the post against Denmark about the best he mustered until the quarter finals and he badly lacked support on that side of the pitch (more on which shortly). The change in shape vs Switzerland allowed him to operate more centrally and he did have a little more joy from then on, unfortunate not to score vs Netherlands and probably our best player on the evening…but overall it was still well short of what he has produced at club level for some time, and in the wider picture, 4 goals from 41 caps to date represents a highly underwhelming return for someone with so much ability and who over the last 18 months has showcased his goalscoring for Manchester City. Working out a way to get the best out of him and Bellingham in the same XI is one for the top of the new manager’s in-tray; going back in time, Bobby Robson struggled to adequately accommodate both John Barnes and Chris Waddle (Graham Taylor cut off the issue by ending Waddle’s international career when he was still in magnificent form for Marseille; picking the likes of John Salako, Lee Sharpe, David White, Tony Daley and Andy Sinton instead feels like a fever dream in retrospect), and multiple managers failed to solve the puzzle of playing both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. It would be a shame if history were to repeat itself, but what is for sure is that the balance absolutely did not work here, and both were diminished as a result.
Kieran Trippier: When Sean Connery was cast as a Russian submarine commander in The Hunt for Red October, he didn’t sound much like a Russian. That wasn’t his fault. It was on whichever fool thought that the man with a range of exactly one accent could pull off another one. And so accordingly, it isn’t particularly fair to have a go at Kieran Trippier for not looking like much of a left back in a major tournament, being as he isn’t and never has been a left back. The effect of him being so one-footed was to choke off any kind of attacking threat on one entire side of the pitch, as well as neutering Phil Foden when he was stationed out there as there was no option whatsoever outside him. To return to the Ronald Zubar comparisons of Kyle Walker’s “defending” at points in the tournament, Trippier in possession was like when Marçal got the ball for Wolves and was playing at left wing back. Pass to him, end of attack. Every time. His defending was competent enough without doing anything spectacular, which is no real kind of selling point. Kevin Keegan went into Euro 2000 with Phil Neville as our primary option at left back as if there were zero other competent options available to him (Sven-Göran Eriksson quickly disproved that theory less than a year later by picking Chris Powell while he waited for Ashley Cole to be ready to play - Powell was nothing special, just a decent, experienced Premier League player who was skilled at playing that particular position. They do exist. They did then and they do now). This was at least as big an error on Gareth Southgate’s part, given that he must have known the state of Luke Shaw’s projected availability. Trippier turns 34 in September and his best days are clearly behind him, so this should be another case of the book being closed.
Aaron Ramsdale: Water carrying duties, which has been his role at club level for the last year or so too. We’re currently fairly short on goalkeeping options; nonetheless he needs a swift move away from Arsenal as we cannot carry someone who isn’t playing any games whatsoever. In all honesty, he also needs to prove that he’s any good. Arsenal dropped him and signed someone else for a reason, and when he’s stepped in for club and country since he’s hardly covered himself in glory (see Iceland’s goal in the final warm-up friendly for Exhibit A).
Ezri Konsa: Stepped in adequately when we Colin Lee-d our way to needlessly hanging on to a lead vs Slovakia, and when deputising for the suspended Guéhi against Switzerland. As with Guéhi, his progress (along with playing Champions League football next season) should now mean that Harry Maguire is subject to earning his place through merit rather than him looking quite good in 2018.
Lewis Dunk: Didn’t play and didn’t look likely to play. As such, surely this spot in the squad should have been given to Jarrad Branthwaite who actually has an international future. Dunk, who is nearly 33, has only mustered 6 caps across 6 years, and who looked very poor in the March fixtures against Brazil and Belgium, does not.
Connor Gallagher: Act 2 of the midfield morass. With the Trent experiment clearly on the lines of a cyberpunk film starring Rutger Hauer, Southgate went to his next most experienced option in Gallagher. But here’s the rub. In a three man midfield, deployed to offer a ton of running and a bit of goal threat, Gallagher has some fairly obvious value (it’s how and where he excelled for Crystal Palace on loan). As a disciplined midfielder in a defensively-minded pair…er, no. He doesn’t have any of those attributes. He will play there, run around enthusiastically to very little effect, probably get booked and contribute nothing. And so it proved for 45 depressing minutes against Slovenia, after which he was mercifully hooked. None of this should have been a surprise as anyone who has watched him for any reasonable length of time can tell you exactly what he is. But there we were, watching it unfold. You do wonder sometimes.
Ivan Toney: You could forgive Toney for getting the impression that he was a bit of an afterthought in the manager’s mind. Had UEFA stuck to 23 man squads as originally planned, he probably wouldn’t have made it on the plane. He didn’t get off the bench in the group stage or look particularly likely to do so. With us trailing 1-0 to Slovakia (as we had been for over an hour), he came on in the 94th minute after 5 minutes of injury time had been signalled. And yet…his presence gave Slovakia at least something to worry about as we sent in one final last desperate long throw, and then he assisted Harry Kane’s winner in extra time with an astute header back across goal. Then he stuck away his penalty in the quarter-final shoot out (odd that there was so much coverage subsequently of him not looking at the ball when doing so…he never does, this isn’t new). So it was all worth it in the end, in a roundabout way. It’ll be interesting to see where he ends up this season; Brentford seem to have banked on him leaving as they spent plenty of money on his replacement in advance, but as yet there haven’t been any takers.
Anthony Gordon: We left out the combined 96 caps of Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish in order to accommodate Gordon in the squad. This was a fair enough call; the more experienced pair had fairly terrible seasons, Gordon excelled for Newcastle. We then used Gordon for around five minutes in the entire tournament, despite lacking any kind of threat, let alone a direct one, at any stage. Hmmm. He’s still more than young enough to have plenty more tournaments in him, but once again it just didn’t make much sense. If you’re going to take him at the expense of players like that, surely you have to give him some kind of a go, especially as we didn’t even look very good for most of the proceedings.
Ollie Watkins: Regularly made an impact off the bench and offered a marked contrast to the subdued Kane - the fact that he could offer any sort of threat in behind just offered a point of difference. His goal against the Netherlands is another that will be watched over and over for years to come, an excellent piece of play in working a yard of space then sending an unerring finish past the helpless goalkeeper. Could he have actually started the final? Should he have? Perhaps. It’d be an extremely brave manager to drop the country’s record goalscorer for the (joint) biggest game you’ve faced in nearly 60 years, so that’s probably a criticism of Southgate that is a little unfair. One consequence of being a late bloomer is that he doesn’t have all that much time on the clock; he looks pretty young, but he’s actually 29 before the turn of the year and as such, as a player reliant on pace and movement, probably only has another two international tournaments at best in him. Should definitely be playing a reasonably sized role in the immediate term though.
Jarrod Bowen: Just the two substitute appearances in the opening two games for Bowen and then drifted from view. There’s a suspicion that at the highest level, he’s a bit too predictable coming in from the right hand side (Arjen Robben could pull this off, he is not Arjen Robben) and we are overloaded with attacking options at present (plenty of them a good deal younger and more versatile), so difficult to predict how much of an international future he has.
Eberechi Eze: Three brief sub appearances which included an odd spell at left wing back where incredibly, he didn’t look totally out of place. Over the course of the domestic season, definitely merited his spot in the squad ahead of the likes of James Maddison…but as it stands doesn’t have an obvious spot in the team.
Joe Gomez: His versatility in being able to play anywhere across a back four was what almost certainly tipped the scales in him being picked. Him being nowhere near the best option in any of those positions is why he didn’t play. Nominally I suppose he was an alternative to Trippier at left back given that the Newcastle man was offering so little on the ball, but it’s not something I was desperate to see. It’d just have been a different illustration of the same problem.
Dean Henderson: You grab the cones Aaron, I’ll fetch the balls. It’s an odd existence at a tournament knowing that you’re pretty much certain not to play. Has his own battle at club level to stay ahead of Sam Johnstone in the Crystal Palace team - not likely to ever bother Jordan Pickford on merit (and another who’s older than you think, he’s 27, not really a promising youngster).
Cole Palmer: Pretty much the sole consistently good player for Chelsea in their confusing 2023/24 season, he carried that through by repeatedly having an impact off the bench, culminating in his excellent strike in the final. Being directly up against Bukayo Saka for a starting berth is always going to be a tricky one and it remains to be seen how that battle pans out, or indeed if Palmer can demonstrate an ability to play elsewhere (predicting what the Todd Boehly-era Chelsea will do at any given moment is a fool’s errand, so let’s just wait and see). It does seem faintly ridiculous now that a year ago, he’d never even scored a Premier League goal.
Adam Wharton: As with Anthony Gordon, included as a bit of a bolter through late season form at the expense of more seasoned individuals. As with Anthony Gordon, unused even though he plays in an area where we struggled to find the right solution throughout. Who knows why. Hopefully he can continue to impress for Crystal Palace (should he stay there - there are already murmurings of interest from bigger clubs) because it certainly is a position where we are light.
Kobbie Mainoo: Didn’t even start a league game until mid-November 2023, didn’t turn 19 until April 2024, ended up playing (almost by default) in the final stages of a European Championships. Broadly speaking - he did ok. Unlike Trent Alexander-Arnold, he’s actually a midfielder. Unlike Connor Gallagher, he actively wants the ball. He still has a long, long way to go though. It hasn’t been an accident that when he’s appeared for Manchester United, they are alarmingly easy to run through and that tendency was on show here - he simply isn’t naturally attuned to tracking runners or offering a shield for the centre halves. It might come with age, he’s certainly got everything in his favour to have a fine career. This was probably too early for him to play such a prominent role, but he didn’t let anyone down and can at least point to markedly improving the team when he came in.
Excellent analysis again.
What strikes me is Southgate was not only was very ordinary in his match day tactics but he also was wanting in the management and rotation of his squad.