It seems to be tradition at this point, that England will go into a Major football tournament as one of the favorites, and then come home early after grossly underperforming. In the past couple decades at least too, this is not just underperforming in terms of results, but also in terms of overall play, meaning even wins for the nation seem unsatisfying. The Dutch in Euro 2008 for example beat Italy 3-0 and France 4-1. They were then beaten handily by Russia in the quarterfinals but at least they had a couple stellar performances to look back fondly on. England seem to either go out early and in embarrassing fashion, such as with their 2-1 loss to Iceland in the round of 16 in Euro 2016 after finishing runners up to Wales in their group, or they make an admirable run deep into a tournament after scraping their way there in the most uninspiring way, such as at the 2018 World Cup. They finished as runners up to Belgium in their group, got past Colombia in the round of 16 on penalties when they were highly favored, and then made hard work of a poor Swedish side in the next round scoring their only 2 shots on target before being knocked out by Croatia in the semis and beaten handily again by Belgium in the third place game. As a result, their only major trophy remains the 1966 World Cup on home soil, and they are the only team to have won the World Cup but not their continental championship.
In the 2000s, England had a ‘golden generation’. The EPL, their country’s premier football league, was catapulted to the forefront of European and world football thanks in no small part to the brilliance of the players of that generation. The likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard and many more were constantly selected in team of the seasons, world XIs, and won several trophies with their clubs. Yet, for some reason, they would always fail miserably on the global international stage. As is the norm in football, and sport in general, the buck stops with the coach and they always get the blame, and English team coaches were typically fired after a poor showing at a tournament. England had some pretty accomplished managers for this generation too, ignoring the best their nation had to offer and going for internationally renowned ones, such as Fabio Capello of Italy and Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson. Some pointed out there were clashes between the talented players, and that they were almost too talented, as several of the squad were used to being “the man” at their club sides, and didn’t know how to be just system players for the national team. The biggest example of this was the in the midfield, where for years people thought Lampard and Gerrard just couldn’t play together, despite arguably both being top 5 midfielders in the world at their peak, even though they and the managers constantly denied it. As it would turn out, several years later having retired, quite a few members of the team such as Ferdinand, Lampard and Gerrard, admitted that yes, they didn’t get along due to club tribalism and rivalries, so for example the Chelsea players would clique together and not get along with the Manchester United players and so on, as well as the number of inflated egos clashing. Fast forward to the current squad. This one is arguably the second most talented English squad in decades after the golden generation, and perhaps even surpasses it in certain areas of the pitch. Unlike the golden generation however, there is no longer a culture of cliques and groups, as all these players have grown up together and been on the same or opposing teams since youth level. The age of social media has helped to to build the camaraderie as well. This is a unified team, who publicly defend each other, and that is a credit to the manager, Gareth Southgate. His tenure is a product of England wanting a home grown coach after blaming some of their issues on foreign coaches in the past. Alas, as good as a man manager he is, he is the chief problem. How cruel is irony that the world class coaches from other shores were seen as the problem, yet one so tactically out of his depth but loved as a local lad by his football association gets chance after chance, and is wasting an incredibly talented generation that has won World and European titles at various youth levels? It has gotten to the point where the seemingly unthinkable happens, where the players are getting the blame and not him. He is the English elephant in the room that their football association refuse to acknowledge. England have 2 front runners for the Ballon d’Or, with Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Manchester City’s Phil Foden being arguably the best players on the world’s top 2 teams. Record goal scorer Harry Kane has come off his best goalscoring season yet in his first year at German giants Bayern Munich, and they are so deep that the runner up for the EPL golden boot, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, is nothing more than a substitute option. Yet after every bland and lethargic performance, one England superstar after another gets the blame, starting with the English media’s favorite scapegoats, which seem to be Bukayo Saka, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice. Saka is the only player proving true width, Trent has statistically by far been their most creative player in the tournament, and Rice is widely seen as the second best in his deep lying midfield position in the world, after Spain’s Rodri. After a lot of pressure from the media to drop some of these players, Southgate did, and aside from some increased flair, the results remained. England struggle to get more than one shot on target, no matter who plays. They are repeatedly saved by the brilliance of Bellingham, or a ‘Hail Mary’ long ball type goal that Kane scored to beat Slovakia last time out. Southgate has been known to have favorites, and these are players who work hard but have little technical skill, matching up with his playing style. He is cowardly and overly cautious which reeks of a coach used to inferior players, not one with world class ones who should take the game to their opponent. If he is pragmatic against inferior teams that refuse to attack, of course they will struggle to break them down. Yet he talks about missing players such as Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips who had horrible seasons, and could not make the team due to lack of fitness, but because they fit his style their absence must be the problem. Never mind all the world class talent at his disposal. I am writing this on the eve of their Euro 2024 quarterfinal against an in from Switzerland. This is the best team they have faced at the tournament so far, so while I would not be shocked if they lose, I still think they are so talented they may be bailed out again by a moment of brilliance by someone like Bellingham yet again. However, regardless of the result, Southgate has to step down after this tournament and go back to hiring the best available coach, and save this generation before it’s too late and give England the title they have craved for more than half a century. No matter who plays, he will ignore their talents and be safe and cautious, playing slowly without real energy. He does not like to make formation or personnel changes, and astonishingly when he does, they still play the same way. They need to finally acknowledge the English elephant in the room, realize their mistake and hire someone fit for all this talent. There is a reason the last English coach to win the EPL did so in 1992. They just do not have a world class coach and have not had one for decades, the reason why however is another story.