Who were the biggest let downs for the England squad in the just concluded Euros 2024? We’re going to be looking at who were the biggest losers from the England squad in the Euro 2024 campaign.
It was a tournament of mixed emotions. They got to the final, but they played poorly throughout. Looking at the number of high profile players in the squad, the England team should be winning the last two Euros. Instead, they have lost both after playing abysmally in the finals.
List of the biggest losers from the England team in Euros 2024:
5) Kyle Walker
At number five is right back Kyle Walker. Firstly, him starting meant that Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t starting and many feel Trent’s ability would have been more useful to England.
Walker starting is on the basis that he’s a better defender than Trent. Plus, he has pace and athleticism that is unmatched in the squad. Although, besides his pace, Walker didn’t show much on the pitch.
He played alright against weaker teams, but nothing amazing and in the final, he was sort of at fault for both of the goals Spain scored because they both came from the right side.
So even though Walker is meant to be the better defender, he actually has poor positional awareness to be the bad depend on.
In a lot of times he gets caught out of position. In the attacking front, he didn’t offer much besides his pace. He was terrible at crossing and he had no link-up play with the midfielders or the right winger.
4) Phil Foden
The next biggest loser is Phil Foden. He’s praised a lot by the media as one of the most talented English players ever. He has constantly underperformed for England and he was even more terrible at Euro 2024.
He scored zero goals, zero assists, zero key passes leading to goals. Interestingly enough, England scored a lot of their goals once Phil Foden was subbed off. England struggled to fit Foden and Bellingham both in the squad as they’re both naturally number tens.
In the end, the manager ended up starting both of them. Sometimes Foden in the lead and later Foden in the middle and Bellingham in the left. So a lot was done to accommodate Foden playing in the team, yet, he underdelivered in every game except for one half against Netherlands.
Questions have to be asked if Foden outside of Guardiola and City’s protection, Foden has done nothing for England and he’s not made a good impact.
3) Gareth Southgate
The former England manager comes in at number three on this list. This tournament has cost him his life. Yes, he is the second most successful England manager of all time. Two Euro finals in a row is not an easy feat, but Southgate has still underachieved.
Firstly, he has been extremely lucky by being pitted against the weaker teams in the Euro tournaments and that’s helped them reach the finals. Even then, against the weaker teams, England played poorly and won by the smallest of margins.
Southgate has such a good England squad and he often relied on the individual performances to win matches. Tactically, Southgate is not good. Euro 2024 proved it even more.
England couldn’t dominate possession against weaker teams. Their pressing was all over the place. Against bigger teams, Southgate makes the goalkeeper play long ball football and they just lose possession every single time.
Considering the defenders England has in John Stones and Marc Guéhi, who know how to play from out of defence, Southgate never utilised it.
His team selection was always poor, he was always scared to drop out of form players because of their reputation. He forced England to play without a natural left winger because he wanted to fit Foden and Bellingham on the pitch. So the balance of the squad was not there. Even when England performed badly, he never changed his tactics. He was always stubborn about his tactics.
England only ever played attacking football when they were behind in matches but once they did score, Southgate’s natural instinct was to revert back to playing defensive football.
Ultimately, England has some of the most exciting attacking players in the world but Southgate’s tactics of playing it safe, playing negative football, will frustrate these players and he had to leave for the squad to grow.
His philosophy and tactics has cost England the Euro 2020 final and it’s cost them the Euro 2024 final.
2) The England Squad
The next biggest loser is not an individual player, it’s the whole England squad.
England came to this tournament with superstars. I mean, highly rated players that other teams would kill to have. They have had a sub bench full of players that were also highly rated. Yet these players were completely disjointed.
The likes of Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kieran Trippier, all these players weren’t awful like the other players on this list, but they weren’t consistent enough in the performances.
Bellingham looked leggy, tired, Saka looked tired, Rice kept on giving the ball away to the opponents, which is something he would never do in the Arsenal shirt. These players just couldn’t replicate their club form.
Before the tournament, a lot was said about the team chemistry that this squad has, how everyone’s friends, how the cohesion is there, but on the pitch, they did not show it. They reacted negatively to media pressure, to criticism from pundits, ex-footballers, and they created a siege mentality which just didn’t help.
They did reach the final. Yes, it’s a great achievement, but as mentioned before, they were lucky because of the opponents they had. It was a one good win against The Netherlands in the semi-final, other than that, England were constantly out played.
In the final, they deserve to be beaten by the better team in Spain. They just didn’t live up to the expectations in terms of how they played their football. So the whole team comes in at number two as the biggest losers.
1) Harry Kane
Finally, at number one, the biggest loser from the England squad in Euro 2024 is England’s star striker, their captain, their all-time top scorer, Mr. Harry Kane.
This tournament will be a huge stain on his image because of how poorly he played, how he frustrated his teammates because of how he was playing in his position.
He was constantly dropping into midfield even though the playmakers in Foden, Bellingham wanted him to play on the last line of defence and make runs in behind the defender so they can do through balls. Kane offered none of that.
Even when England played long ball, where the goalkeeper hoofs it, Kane hardly ever used his height or his strength to win the ball in the air. He never won headers. Yes, he did score three goals in Euro 2004, and he was joint a joint top scorer with two of those goals easy tap-ins, and the other one was a penalty.
The midfield, the wingers, Foden, Bellingham, Saka, they need a different kind of striker, and Kane didn’t suit their style of play. This was more evident when Kane was subbed off for Ollie Watkins, who had a bigger impact.
Kane is only 30 years old, and he is England’s all-time top scorer already but he has a reputation now of losing in the finals, going missing in big games and this tournament has made him look worse. Whether he was injured or unfit, he should have not started every single game.
The last 10 years of England was built around Harry Kane as the centerpiece. Now, with a new manager coming in, they will need to move away from Kane and build a squad around the new crop of star players
So Harry Kane is the biggest loser of the England squad from Euro 2024.
Thank you for reading.