England 1-1 Denmark and what felt like a low-point in Gareth Southgate's management of the national side. While a draw in the group stages isn't a disaster, it was the manner of the performance that has set alarm bells ringing for fans of England. Adam Clery examines the game and explains just how a side packed with incredible talent can turn in such a miserable display.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and that was dreadful.
00:15Now full disclosure before we start, it is okay to have a bad result in the group stage
00:20of an international tournament, it's okay to have a bad performance in the group stage
00:25of an international tournament, but as a man who has stood in various places over the last
00:29few months and told you that there's good things about this England side, it would be
00:33naive of me in the extreme to try and paint that as anything other than completely minging.
00:40Right, so Gareth Southgate went with the same eleven that, how can I put this, got them
00:45over the line against Serbia, you had Rice and Alexander-Arnold as this double pivot,
00:49you had Jude Bellingham as the ten, you had Phil Foden stuck out on the left and it pretty
00:53much just picks itself from there.
00:55And just like the Serbia game, England took an early lead, then appeared to just sort
00:59of sit off and invite the pressure, but unlike the Serbia game, Denmark were able to take
01:04this system, observe its many flaws, and then pull its pants completely down.
01:09And there are a number of places I could start with just what was wrong here, but the best
01:13place to do so is the very beginning.
01:16So literally from the kick-off, England go extremely long, they commit men forward, but
01:21they don't win that ball, and two kicks of the football later, Denmark are running in
01:26behind.
01:27And then from that running in behind, England scramble back, they try their best to get
01:31organised and yet somehow, Denmark end up with a shooting chance on the edge of the
01:35box with this player here in this much space.
01:39Now I'm going to need you to remember, A, the words kicking long, and B, the words this
01:44much space, because they're going to be a theme.
01:46So as a first little graphical offering, I'm going to show you the average positions of
01:50that England starting XI across the game, and just have a moment to take that in and
01:55you will no doubt observe that it appears to be incredibly scrunched together in the
01:59middle.
02:00It's neither one thing nor the other.
02:01Like on the one hand, it looks like a team that wants to play on the front foot and is
02:05pushing forward because the defence are so high, but on the other hand, it looks like
02:09a team that wants to sit off and sort of be defensive because the attackers are so deep.
02:13That's pretty much a fairly good summation of what England were doing here.
02:16When they had the ball, they attempted to move it up the pitch incredibly slowly, like
02:20a possession team would, but then when they lost the ball, there was no sort of fight,
02:24no bite, no attempt to win it back in dangerous areas, which is a huge shock because in every
02:30single warm-up game, England were this aggressive, high-pressing side.
02:34We thought that was what they were trying to be, but yet England's press in this game
02:39had all the intensity, it had all the enthusiasm of me trying to do my emails on a hangover.
02:46But this is the first one, it's literally in the first minute, Denmark have a throw-in
02:50and England successfully force them to throw backwards.
02:53This is the moment you're waiting for if you're a high-pressing team.
02:56So if you've played football, you know when someone throws the ball into you, it's actually
02:59a really difficult sort of pass to control, that goes backwards towards the full-back
03:03and Phil Foden here is on it, he knows they're in a vulnerable situation, tries to get it.
03:08Now this defender's dropped off loads, that's fairly sensible, that's what you expect them
03:12to do, but from here, you now have to lock on, you have to cut out all of his options.
03:17But yet, when he goes to pass the ball, look at his options, he's not forced to go back
03:21to the goalkeeper, Harry Kane is gingerly not jogged out to the man, he's jogged to
03:25sort of cut out this passing lane, but he can go here, and he can go here, and he can
03:30go here.
03:31Now, when the Danish defender on the far side receives it, look at the space he has, like
03:37Phil Foden was doing the closing down on the right-hand side, but he's supposed to be the
03:41left-sided attacker, there's nobody out here to put any pressure on the ball.
03:45And because he's got all that space, he then runs with it from the edge of his own box
03:50to the edge of England's final third, and by the time he gets there, there's only Declan
03:54Rice anywhere near him, he gets drawn away from the man he's marking to just put some
03:58kind of pressure on.
04:00Because that's a two-on-one, it's child's play for the pair of them to work it into
04:04a crossing position.
04:05Now nothing comes of it, but that's the kind of thing that should be a warning sign.
04:09And just to show you what a press should look like in this situation, about a minute later,
04:12England have the ball in the exact same position that Danish defender has it, and look at
04:17the lack of time they're allowed to have here.
04:20Like Denmark don't really successfully take the ball off them, but they stop them playing
04:24forward in any meaningful way.
04:26Like Foden gets it, he turns straight away, everything in front of him is blocked off,
04:30there's aggression from these Danish players.
04:32And just in the exact same way that the Danish full-back got the ball in a lot of space,
04:35they work it out to Kyle Walker, who's the unmarked man, but when he gets his head up,
04:40look at the options available to him.
04:42They've shut off every single thing he can possibly do in that situation.
04:46He manages to get it into Bakayo Saka, but he's got his back to goal, the defender is
04:50touched tight to him, he doesn't allow him to turn, he forces him to put it back into
04:54this danger area.
04:55And that whole vibe of a lack of intensity was the entire theme throughout the match.
05:01This is later in the first half, Denmark, they've got their equaliser, they're now getting
05:05on the ball.
05:06They could be aggressive, they could push out, they could really impose themselves on
05:10this game, and yet, just watch the lack of action from England's players here as Denmark
05:16get it into their half.
05:17Like, it's clear from the shape that Foden, Bellingham and Kane are supposed to be the
05:21first line of pressure, they were sort of playing as a three up front, but just look
05:25how easily Denmark find it to play the ball through this line.
05:29They go out wide to draw Foden out there and also create the angle, you can even see Trent
05:34Alexander-Arnold pointing, like someone has to lock on to that player, either Kane's got
05:39to drop and follow him, which is obviously a total waste of Harry Kane, or you've got
05:43to have someone like Declan Rice jump up to press, and they don't do either, and Denmark
05:48just get past that first line like it's not even there.
05:50And what happens next, right, comes about 30 or 40 seconds later, I'm not going to show
05:54you the whole clip, but Denmark don't lose the ball in that time, they just keep recirculating
05:59and holding on to it, and eventually they find a pass through, and what do they manage
06:03to find?
06:05Space on the edge of the box.
06:07Now, Phil Foden's name might come up a couple of times in this video, but I just want to
06:11stress, not putting this on him or saying it's his fault or he's making mistakes, he's
06:15clearly been told to play a lot narrower, but because of that, it meant that Denmark
06:19had all the space in the world to play it out wide.
06:22So you can see here they do that, and because this is not blocked off by Foden, it forces
06:27Trippier to break his line to stop the pass coming in, but by doing that, it allows him
06:33to pull Declan Rice out of position to cover, leaving Alexander-Arnold all on his own.
06:37And so when they get turned, and they get that space on the edge of the box again, look
06:41where they've put Declan Rice, look where they've put Harry Kane, look where they've
06:44put Kieran Trippier, and they get another really good chance of it.
06:48And now that we've learned these two lessons about a lack of intensity comparative to Denmark
06:53and space at the end of the box, would you like to put two and two together and work
06:57out how Denmark score their goal?
07:00England have a throw-in, and because Denmark have got them nicely boxed in, they've got
07:04all their options cut off, Harry Kane, of all people, is forced to drop into sort of
07:08this left wing-back position to receive the ball, but he's not even allowed to do that
07:13freely.
07:14He's put under pressure, and he just makes the kind of decision that a centre-forward
07:19is likely to make in a defensive position, and he hoofs it into the middle of the pitch.
07:23And yes, you've got to give Denmark credit here, because it is an incisive turnover,
07:26and it's a brilliant, brilliant hit.
07:28But given that this is in England's defensive third, from a position when they had the ball,
07:33look how close they are to getting any of these players in front of that shot.
07:38They haven't got a chance.
07:39That's the kind of thing that can happen, you can't just be set up the wrong way, your
07:43game plan can be slightly wrong.
07:44It's the sort of thing you hope that when you get in at half-time, you sit down and
07:48you address.
07:49Like, lads, we're having a real problem playing out from the back here, let's not invite a
07:52press on if we don't have to.
07:54Let's set up in a way that we can play a bit longer, a little bit more direct, let's stop
07:58them pressing us if we possibly can.
08:00But England just did not learn that lesson.
08:03Second half, they get penned into their own corner.
08:05Declan Rice once again has found himself drawn out in that left-back area to try and cover
08:10some of that space, and he's put under enough pressure again that he just sort of hooks
08:14it into the middle of the pitch, because there's nothing else on.
08:18Not cut it out, there's a bit of a scramble, they clearly want it more in that situation,
08:22and lo and behold, I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say in this video, Christian
08:26Eriksen finds himself in loads of space on the edge of the box, and he should do better
08:31with that shot.
08:32So, okay, yeah, I'm aware I'm sort of ranting here and I'm just repeating myself.
08:35You get the picture, right, England couldn't play out from the back and they weren't pressing
08:38Denmark and giving them all this space on the edge, right, that's in your head, right?
08:43So why was that happening?
08:45Why was a team as good as England unable to play through Denmark?
08:49Why was it unable to press them in the final third?
08:52And the answer, simply, is personnel.
08:56And I need to just give you this disclaimer again, because whenever you criticise a player
09:00on YouTube, you get people who are like, why are you blaming it all on him when it's this
09:03person's fault, it's this person's fault, this is nobody's fault, this is just simply
09:07what was happening.
09:08This is Declan Rice, who I like, remember, we've said a lot of nice things about Declan
09:13Rice on the channel this year, this is Declan Rice's pass map from that game.
09:18When you play Rice and Alexander-Arnold in central midfield, it is the responsibility
09:22of one of them to be taking the ball off the back four, to be making that first pass out
09:28of defence.
09:29Now Alexander-Arnold, he wants to be here, he wants to be doing damage in the final third
09:33of the pitch, he's got killer balls in his locker, so that's how you use him, so naturally
09:38it's then Rice who has to do the classic number six work.
09:42And if you are an Arsenal fan, or you've watched Arsenal this season, you'll know that rough
09:46run of form they went on, we talked about it on the channel, was down to them relying
09:50on Declan Rice to be that exact player.
09:54You let him get forward of the ball, you let him carry it, you give him a bit of space,
09:57you let him sort of be that sort of advanced number eight, he's world class, he's majestic,
10:02but this is not his game, because that incisive pass through a press, the thing you have to
10:07get right, is not in his locker.
10:10And so if you look, you'll see he's capable of being very neat and tidy, he can receive
10:13it, he can give it, he can move it around, he can circulate the ball, he's very good
10:17at that, but just look, just look for yourself, how many of these are forwards, how many of
10:23them would break a line of pressure, how many of them would take Danish players out the
10:28game, it's virtually none.
10:30And we saw this with Arsenal this season, when you put Declan Rice in this position,
10:34when you stop him playing his game, and you force him to play this game, two things happen.
10:39First of all, you end up going backwards and then having to go long because you've
10:42lost all of your options, and then when you do finally get it in the final third and you've
10:46moved up the pitch, you kind of end up horseshoeing around with not a lot of movement in front
10:50of you, because you haven't got that pass.
10:53And these are all of England's unsuccessful passes in that match, and to be fair, it's
10:59not a lot of them, they weren't giving the ball away way too much, but just look at how
11:03many of these are long from deep areas, these were all a result of them not being able to
11:09break the line of Danish pressure, and panicking and humping it upfield instead.
11:14And when that happens, this happens as well, this is Harry Kane's heat map, this is everywhere
11:19he was able to impact the game, look how few times they were able to get him the ball in
11:24an area where he can do damage, and how many times instead he has to drop into the middle
11:29third to try and receive a long ball, he has to drop out to the flanks to try and relieve
11:33a bit of pressure.
11:34When you don't work at the back, you will not work at the front.
11:37And I think what maybe worried me worst of all about that match is that England are still
11:43a really good team, they're still unbelievably talented at 11, so even when they're not playing
11:47that well, they're still capable of getting into good positions.
11:51It was what they did when they got into those positions.
11:54This is in the opening sort of two or three minutes again, but Kyosaki gets the ball here,
11:58and just honestly tell me, what are his options here?
12:01I know in the last video we said that you need to have players moving away from you,
12:04you can't be congested in the same spaces like Bellingham and Foden occasionally do,
12:08but just this is the extreme, extreme opposite of that.
12:12He has nothing on short, his overlap is already offside and is trotting back, there's nobody
12:18in the right hand half space offering him maybe a one-two to cut inside, there's no
12:21available cross, there's nothing he can do there, but just hope he beats that player
12:26one-on-one.
12:27But again, that can happen, you get in at halftime, you address it, you fix it, you
12:31make sure it doesn't happen again, this is from the second half.
12:34Now they've actually got bodies in the box, but tell me, what is Bekayo Saka's option
12:39here?
12:40He's got three players attacking the goal, but they're all on the same line, he can only
12:45go past this player and try and put a cross in across the front of the goal, there's no
12:50option for him to come back, there's no overlap, there's nobody at the edge of the box, he's
12:54only got one option.
12:56That's an option, by the way, that depends on him A, beating this man one-on-one, which
13:00is a rarer thing in football than you think, and B, the man marking the near post, not
13:04reading this, and just blocking the cross out.
13:07And I mean, Christ, just count the numbers in this picture, how many attacks do you see
13:12scored in football when you've got a four-on-seven?
13:15Right, no more graphs, no more overlays on the pitch, no data, no nothing like that,
13:20I just want to talk to you.
13:22I have been, for a number of years now, quite a staunch defender of Gareth Southgate as
13:27the England manager.
13:28I'm aware of his faults, I'm aware of his flaws, I don't think he's perfect or brilliant
13:32by any stretch of the imagination, but to me, he symbolised a major and vital cultural
13:38shift in how the England team works.
13:40I am of an age where I grew up watching Scoles, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Owen, going to all
13:47these tournaments, and could not for the life of me understand why England did not win everything.
13:52But then of course, you know, you get a little bit older, you understand football a different
13:56way, and it's obvious, of course those teams weren't going to win everything.
14:00You can't just stick all these great players in an XI, in a line-up, and just magically
14:05expect it to work.
14:06The reason we were getting beat off these teams that didn't have the same stars we had
14:11was because they were just better organised, they had a better plan.
14:14And that's why for the last couple of years, when people were pulling their hair out over
14:17Henderson always getting picked, and Phillips always been in the team, and he always picked
14:21Harry Maguire even when he's crap for Manchester United, I was always just like, well, yeah,
14:26because that's how you build a national side.
14:30It's not about having the best possible players and hoping the system figures it out, but
14:33neither is it about having this really clever system and just picking the XI players that'll
14:38make it work in spite of the talent you've got available.
14:41It's about getting the balance between the two right.
14:44You identify a couple of brilliant players who can work together in a particular system,
14:49and then you build around that.
14:51And historically at tournaments, that's what England have done.
14:55You look at the England team that got to the final of the Euros, and the back five,
14:58they were in perfect synergy, they played together really well, but you had Henderson,
15:02you had Rashford, you even had Mason Mount, players who were in that XI in spite of there
15:06being way better talent behind them on the bench, because they were making it all work.
15:11But now I look at this England team and I see Harry Kane up front, who is undoubtedly
15:16the greatest goalscorer of his generation, coming off an incredible season with his club
15:21side, but every time England try and press, he just looks completely lost at sea.
15:25I see Phil Foden, who pretty much dragged Manchester City to the Premier League title
15:30in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne this season, all the way on the left, leaving huge spaces
15:36on that side as he comes in to try and affect the play.
15:38I see Declan Rice, who was my pick for PFA Player of the Year, playing in the exact one
15:45role that did not work for him at Arsenal this season.
15:48And that is what really worries me about this England side, because it feels to me
15:52like we're watching that quote-unquote golden generation again.
15:56This is undoubtedly, I think, the 11 most talented players on the field at this European
16:02Championships, but they're also the 11 that look the least organised.
16:06The reality is, you can't have it all.
16:09If you want to defend deep and be this counter-attacking side, then Declan Rice is not your number
16:14pick in the sixth role.
16:15You need somebody who's going to be really good under pressure and play those incisive
16:19passes.
16:20But if you want to be an aggressive, high-pressing side, then Harry Kane's not your centre-forward.
16:25You need to dominate possession and supply him with loads of chances.
16:28Like, look at France!
16:30Right now they're playing Rabiot, who's had a really weird season at Juventus, and N'Golo
16:34Kante, who went to f***ing Saudi Arabia while they're leaving Touchemini and Kamavinga on
16:40the bench.
16:41It's unthinkable for an England team to do something that sensible.
16:45But I do desperately, desperately want to try and end on some kind of a positive, right?
16:50This is still, like I said at the start of the video, just a bad performance, just a
16:53bad result in the group stage of an international tournament.
16:56And you've seen that countless, countless times.
16:59The last time England had a boring 1-0 win and then a desperately miserable draw in the
17:04second game, they got to the final.
17:06So there is a chance this does just click in the third game and then by the knockouts
17:10when they play the really, really big teams, they step it up a gear.
17:14But I cannot, cannot come away from that Denmark match and have anything other than enormous
17:21alarm bells ringing behind me.
17:23But yes, that's enough because as you can see, I've been in the sun all day and I really
17:26do need to go and have a lie down now.
17:28So if you watch that game, if you're an England fan, if you're just anybody with a pulse,
17:32please do let us know in the comments, A, how you feel about that game, B, how you feel
17:37about the rest of the tournament and C, what would your solution be?
17:41What's your 11?
17:42Who needs to change personnel wise?
17:43How should they structure it differently?
17:45We genuinely do read it all.
17:46It helps us get the sort of the pulse of the nation.
17:49So it's all, all very welcome in the comments and, and more importantly than that, please
17:53do subscribe to us here on 442.
17:55We're trying to break all manner of records during the Euros and we're sort of on our
17:58way to doing that.
18:00So if you do enjoy this or you'd like to see some more of it, this button here is your
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18:04It does massively, massively help us out and hopefully because the content is something
18:06you enjoy, you get a gift back for free.
18:10But of course, if you just want to go on social media and be like, sorry, aren't you the guy
18:13that said this was all going to be fine?
18:15Aren't you the guy that said there were this going to be this great high pressing side?
18:18You dickhead, you've ruined my summer.
18:20There it is, that's Adam Cleary on Instagram, on Twitter, on pretty much everything.
18:26I can take it, but until next time though, I just genuinely, truly, honestly hope it
18:31just all finally, finally works.
18:35I have been Adam Cleary.
18:36This has been 442.
18:38Happy Euros, everybody.
18:40And I'll see you soon.
18:41Bye.