In Euro 2024, England launched the tournament with a victory over Serbia, winning a tightly contested match at Schalke Arena with a low score of 1-0. Critics were, however, unimpressed questioning how a team stacked with such exceptional talent managed to put on such a lacklustre performance.
The single goal of the match, securing England’s win, was a demonstration of Jude Bellingham’s superb talent. The young player has garnered a reputation recently for possibly being England’s golden ticket to ending their trophy dry spell, during this competition in Germany.
The winning play began with a smart pass from Kyle Walker, threading the ball into the gap between Serbian players Fillip Kostic and Strahinja Pavlovic. Kostic found himself poorly positioned and Bukayo Saka took advantage, though Pavlovic partially blocked his cross, this proved fortuitous for England as the redirected ball floated perfectly towards the six-yard line.
Despite being 30 yards away when Walker initiated the play, Bellingham ran in and arrived just in time to meet the ball mid-flight, blasting a header past Milos Veljkovic, the Serbian centre back.
With only 13 minutes passed in the game, England had already gained the upper hand. Similar fast-paced starts were seen from Germany against Scotland and Spain’s first half demolition of Croatia earlier. However, England failed to maintain and increase their initial lead.
Manager Gareth Southgate’s first-choice lineup included Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice in the midfield, with Kieran Trippier as a substitute for the injured Luke Shaw. The selected squad suggested a certain fluidity desired in the gameplay. The first half saw England retaining possession but without the necessary aggression or tactical penetration. Their false calm and forced patience rendered them rigid and unconvincing. Despite controlling the ball, they were still unable to break down the Serbian defence effectively.
As reflected in their gameplay, Germany’s strategy against Scotland was notable for its similarities and disparities with how England dealt with Serbia. The Germans initiated their plays from their half of the ground, with chief strategist Toni Kroos drawing back near his centre-backs to retrieve the ball, effectively putting Scotland in a quandary: to press him, they would need to venture forward, leaving open space; if not, he would have ample time to locate teammates who could then create their own hurdles.
Germany aimed to draw Scotland out, from their defensive line up to the frontline, carving out room near the goal for their skilled strikers to inflict damage. Conversely, England generally began their plays in the Serbian half. Players like Alexander-Arnold and Rice got the ball significantly closer to their opponents’ goal than Kroos, and were confronted by a well-positioned array of defenders. The wide players were positioned upfield and were vigilantly marked. The Serbians were not enticed to abandon their defensive stances.
The English midfielders primarily ended up lobbing the ball side-to-side to each other. However, they did have the advantage of having Saka on the right, who demonstrably outpaced Kostic. His dash led to the opening goal, and he was later able to mimic this feat with a low cross to Kane. Astonishingly, the England captain, Kane, had only been in contact with the ball once in the initial 37 minutes of the match, which occurred as a result of an accidental deflection off Bellingham in a tackle clash.
The perplexing angle was the marginalization of Kane, who ended the first half with only two ball contacts. Interestingly enough, England’s tactics had managed to almost entirely remove their own main striker from the fray. Coaching academies don’t usually instruct on this point. This issue arose because of how Gareth Southgate decided to integrate two top-notch players, Foden and Bellingham, who favoured the same positions. Southgate’s resolution was to move Kieran Trippier to the left flank, relegating Foden to the centre, where he could potentially recreate the lethal dynamics frequently witnessed at Manchester City.
This unintentional tactic resulted in totally impeding Harry Kane’s participation in the game. Foden was hogging areas outside the box that Kane prefers to withdraw into, and receiving passes, which could have otherwise been aimed at the forward. Concurrently, Trippier was failing to pose any threat from the left wing. As the match progressed, we pondered why an out-of-place, right-footed wing-back was deployed as England’s furthest forward player on the left. Given the minimal defence required, perhaps Anthony Gordon could have brought a one-on-one threat?
The Serbian followers began launching a call-and-response chant: “Kosovo-SERBIA! Kosovo-SERBIA”. Their team, assisted by England’s apathy, were controlling much of the play, and Trippier was finally summoned to defend just past the 60-minute mark. A sudden Serbian onslaught down the left saw Mitrovic looking to be the first to deal with a near-post cross – until Trippier clumsily knocked him over from behind. The referee chose to be lenient.
England’s third opportunity came when Trent Alexander-Arnold broke free down the right and slid it to Bellingham, who dodged the initial tackle, yet not the second. The fourth and last opportunity was crafted by Jarrod Bowen, a substitute, with another cross to the right-wing for Kane. Rivals of England will realise they seemingly only have one method of generating opportunities.
The first substitution by Gareth Southgate arrived at the 69-minute mark, and unsurprisingly, Alexander-Arnold was benched. Most of the post-match analysis will dwell on his disappointing ‘trial’ at centre field, where he managed to produce only one semi-opportunity for England, and inadvertently one for Serbia due to clumsy handling of the ball. But, England’s systemic issues extend far beyond the performance of a single player.