Disappointing: Denmark 1-1 England - Match Review
England crawl their way to a draw with Denmark at Frankfurt.
Phil Foden’s face sums up the tone of this review in all honesty: I’m tempted to do a review similar to my review of Arsenal’s victory over Man United at the back end of last season, but I reckon the match today, nonetheless, was far more fascinating. So, I’ll give my thoughts, unfiltered.
Gareth Southgate named an unchanged line-up from the Serbia game, which I found suspicious: I found it more suspicious that he was quoted to have said that Foden’s performance in particular was “exceptional”. I mean, we all saw the second half of that match and Foden, unfortunately, was just short of abysmal - I did call for Palmer to start the Denmark game. I reckon Southgate’s statement was an attempt at boosting morale more than anything.
I won’t lie I missed the build-up to the game from the BBC because I was on the phone to my phone provider: I was getting a sweet deal on my 3 contract, plus I thought our victory was all but inevitable given how well we did against Serbia. To say that I wasn’t fussed about the coverage before kick-off would be accurate. How foolish I was.
Again, in the tunnel, I was impressed by how focused we appeared. We demonstrated an air of a team who was looking to win the competition - I loved it!
Also, I was loving how happy Alan Shearer was on commentary. Growing up, watching Match of the Day, I remember how much of a curmudgeon he was thanks to Newcastle’s shit form for much of my existence. Eddie Howe has done a great job up at Tyneside, and we’re rewarded with a happy Geordie in the commentary box, which isn’t as grating as you’d think it would be - it’s actually fairly pleasant.
The first half rolled around and to be fair, we were too casual: stray passes were abound in the first five minutes. I’m all for confidence in one’s ability but confidence should never come at the expense of standards.
The pitch was a mess - it was a mess throughout the match and I dare say it sabotaged the quality of the match overall. Our standout player in the early stages was Marc Guehi at the back: there were many question marks surrounding his selection but he was probably our player of the match. He was getting the blocks in, passing out from the back with confidence, and he made himself tough to beat on the turn. He’s a real defender.
Despite his poor showing in the second half of last match, Foden was actually our brightest spark going forward: he carved out a chance as a result of his devastating body swerves around the 15th minute, which ultimately helped us find our feet in the match. Yes, that pun was intended: up to that point we were slipping and sliding like we were shit contestants on Dancing on Ice.
A few minutes sir Harold of Kaneland, top scorer for the English national team, put us ahead with a poacher’s finish: Kyle Walker doing well latching onto Jude Bellingham’s pass, catching Victor Bernth Kristiansen off guard with his determination, cutting it back with a couple of deflections finding Kane who slots it in with as much grace as the pitch allowed.
It seemed like we were in business: 1-0 up, we were showing Europe the dogged determination that resides in such a talented English side. Or so, I thought. Again: how foolish I was.
After we scored, the Danish decided to wake up. To be fair, it’s to be expected: I think what many fans, spectators, and pundits fail to accept about international football is that the stakes are much higher, the pressure is much more intense: realistically success in international football is more to do with the management of morale than raw ability: Portugal’s Euro 2016 victory is a prime example of that.
So, England were pressurised around the half hour mark and I accepted it because Denmark did owe it to their fans to play better football, and sometimes in international football you just must suffer some pressure from the opposition. But, but, but Denmark scored an absolute worldy to bring themselves back into the contest. Morten Hjulmand scored probably the only goal he’ll ever score for Denmark that will be his best ever goal in his whole career, from 30 m out: post-and-in as well.
I mean people can have their criticisms of our defence but that sort of goal you simply can’t legislate for: it was a type of goal that lets an opposition fan know that the match they’re watching will be a crazy or disappointing one. It turned out to be the latter.
It gave me flashbacks of how Denmark scored a worldy of a free kick in the last Euros to give them the lead. I mean, the football gods are in control of these matches, I swear!
By the end of the half, frustration was creeping in to the players: Declan Rice was getting vexed at his lack of options when getting the ball, Foden was coming deeper and deeper and deeper - and that’s no innuendo either: honestly, at one point, he was in his own half asking for the ball. Things weren’t going to plan.
When the half-time analysis came round, I was skeptical of the conclusions made by Rio and Micah at first. I thought it was an easy assertion to claim that our main problem was the fact that we sit back when we get ahead: international football is very volatile and Ferdi5 and Richards should be the first people to recognise that.
Yet upon closer inspection, they were right: our average positions on the pitch after we scored shifted downwards. Unfortunately, Southgate’s England suffers from being overly respectful of the opposition.
The second half was really worrying. Denmark showed more tenacity in the first five minutes but we were getting some more possession of the ball afterwards and we were creating some attacks. But it was not just a spineless nor toothless showing, it was a hopeless showing.
To be fair to Southgate, he made the right changes: Conor Gallagher came on to bring the energy, the front three were firing blanks and so they were replaced but to no avail.
By the end of the game, Shearer was losing his mind but he was right. We needed to wake the fuck up but the alarm bell never rang for the players.
When the game eventually ended, there was a real flatness. The fans booing, the commentators disconsolate, the pundits frustrated. Honestly, it was very disappointing, as the title of this review says.
Many will blame the manager or the tactics or the poor individual performances from players that we expected to deliver (Bellingham was very mute during the match), but what’s clear to me is that we simply suffered from a mental block. It’s obvious to everyone watching the Euros, aware of European football, frequent viewers of the Premier League that we have the talent to rip teams apart, but it’s as if we lack trust and belief and faith in our strengths. We appear frightened to unlock our potential.
Today we were failing to do the basics: let’s keep it real, Denmark only got a point because they were able to press out of possession, win second balls, and have the audacity to shoot from eons out. We didn’t do any of that, really and those are the simple aspects of football.
What’s concerning is that we failed to seize the moment, we shot ourselves in the foot. We’re at a stage where the next match is going to decide whether we actually will win the competition or not.
I get it: old habits die hard - we’re hardly in unfamiliar territory. But that’s the point, we should be progressing by now. Southgate has next game to show us what he’s made of, what he’s learned. I’d say the major positive from the Denmark game is that we’re more defensively solid than I anticipated: Guehi is genuinely a good defender. But will Southgate let rip: will he encourage his players to take risks, create chances, have fun or will he play the conservative game again, the safe, milquetoast approach that’s more about avoiding consequences than playing to win? We shall see: I reckon the selection he makes for the Slovenia game will tell us all we need to know.
ITS COMING HOME