England’s Euro 2024 Chances

 

 

 

So here we are; the Euros begin in a few days with England’s first game against Serbia on Sunday. I don’t have any expectations of how England will do and if anything recent results indicate they could struggle. Obviously hopefully that won’t be the case but Southgate has some problems he needs to deal with if England are to have a good tournament.

The last competition game at a finals that England played was the 2-1 defeat by France in the 2022 World Cup just over 18 months ago. It was a game of fine margins so the loss was no disgrace but it reflected at the time where England were; just a bit below the French who went close to winning the tournament.

What really occurred to me watching was that when England got to the Elite part of the competition going forward their needed to be some changes. Some of the players just didn’t look good enough anymore. The two main ones that stood out to me were Maguire & Trippier. They may help you qualify but they just looked like their time at the Elite level had passed. With Maguire in mind this meant Southgate had to start looking for a new centre back partnership.

Fast forward to now and Maguire isn’t in the squad but only because of injury. Southgate hasn’t moved the defence on so Trippier is still there and literally any of the centre backs in the squad could end up being John Stones’s partner if he’s going to be fit enough to play which seems unlikely right now. The defence really looks weak and the reliance on Stones whose fitness record is poor gives cause for concern.

Having said that, if Stones is injured then could England find a new partnership with Guehi and one of Konsa/Dunk/Gomez? Konsa is the one who’s standing out as he just looks so solid but it’s a huge ask for such an inexperienced pair if England go deep into the tournament, especially as Southgate as done so little to prepare them in the build-up.

Southgate has been a bit of an odd manager. He has his favourites which every gaffer has but he looks at players and then discards then very quickly. It makes little sense that AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori isn’t one of England’s centre backs going into Euro 2024 or could he have recalled Eric Dier to add experience. It’s also odd that Southgate hasn’t managed to identify another left back other than Shaw or Trippier. Obviously if England win the competition none of this matters but it doesn’t fill one full of hope going into the matches.

The ironic thing is that there are centre backs coming through the system. Jarrad Branthwaite & Levi Colwill are excellent left sided players. Jarell Quansah has had a break out season for Liverpool whilst players like Teden Mengi & Taylor Harwood-Bellis have shown lots of promise. It looks like going forward England can develop some good central defenders but this is a crossover tournament because Southgate has stuck to his old guard. Maguire’s gone. Stones is creaking. He really need Guehi to blossom to take England deep in the Euros.

It feels like unless England win Euro 2024, the probability is that this will be Southgate’s final tournament as England’s manager. He’s done well overall but winning a competition has thus far eluded him. If I were a betting man I wouldn’t see England winning this tournament but England’s front four can cause problems for every team so you just never know. We’ll have a better idea after the first game on Sunday against Serbia.