Why England Were SO Bad Against Denmark

Hi everyone, Adam Cley from 442 here and that was terrible. Now, full disclosure before we begin. It's okay to have a bad result in the group stage of an international tournament. It's okay to have a bad performance in the group stage of an international tournament. As a man who has been in a number of places over the last few months and told you that there are good things in this England team, it would be extremely naive of me to try to paint that as anything more than a complete combination, which is why G Southgate opted for Los same 11 that I am going to list, this led them to cross the line against Serbia.

You had Rice and Alexander Arnold as this double pivot. You had Jude Bellingham as the 10. You had Phil Foden standing out on the left and he practically picked himself. From there, just like in the game against Serbia, England took an early lead and then seemed to sit back and invite pressure, but unlike the game against Serbia, Denmark were able to take advantage of this system, look at its many flaws and then throw it away. all the way down and there. There are a number of places you could start, but the best place to do it is at the beginning, so literally from the kick-off, England go very far, commit men forward, but they don't win that ball and two shots from Subsequent football, Denmark runs behind and then from that run behind England fall back, they do everything they can to organize themselves and yet somehow Denmark ends up with a chance to shoot on the edge of the area with this player here as space now.

I'm going to need you to remember the words long kick and B the words with so much space because they're going to be a topic, so as a first little graphical offering I'll show you the average positions for that England. 11 starting in the entire game and just take a moment to take it in and you will no doubt notice that they seem to be incredibly tight in the middle, it is neither one thing nor the other, on the one hand they look like a team that wants to play on the front foot and are pushing forward because the defense is so high, but on the other hand it looks like a team that wants to sit back and be on the defensive because the attackers are so deep, that's a pretty good summary of What England did here when they had the ball was try to moving it down the field incredibly slowly like a team would do in possession, but then when he lost the ball, there was no kind of fight, no biting, no attempt to get it back in dangerous areas, which is a big surprise because in every game In preparation, England, with this aggressive high-pressure team, we thought that was what they were trying to be, but still England's pressing in this match had all the intensity that it had all the enthusiasm of me trying to do.

My emails are hungover, but this is the first. It's literally in the first minute. Denmark took a throw-in and England successfully forced them to throw back. This is the moment you are waiting for for your high-pressure team, so if you played soccer, I know that when someone throws the ball to you, it is actually a very difficult type of pass to control that goes backwards, towards the side, and Phil Foden is here, he knows they are in a vulnerable situation, he tries to get it now that this defender has lost charges. that's quite sensible, that's what you expect them to do, but from here now you have to look, you have to eliminate all his options, but when he goes to pass the ball, look at his options, he is not obliged to go back to the goalkeeper.

Harry Kane does not run cautiously towards the man. He's run out to cut off this passing lane, but he can go here and he can go here here and he can go here now when the Danish defender on the other side receives him, look at the space he has like Phil Foden is closing down the right side, but he's supposed to be the left side attacker, there's no one here to put pressure on the ball and because he has all that space he then runs with it from the edge of his own area to the edge of England's final third , when he gets there there's only dein rice near him, he moves away from the man he's guarding to just put some kind of pressure on because it's two on one, it's child's play. for both of them to work in a crossing position, nothing comes up now, but that's the sort of thing that should be a warning sign and just to show you what a press should look like in this situation, about a minute later England have the the ball in exactly the same position as the Danish defender has it and notice the lack of time they are allowed to have here as Denmark don't really take the ball away from them successfully but it prevents them from playing forward as significantly as they do Foden.

If you turn immediately, everything in front of you is blocked, there is aggression from these Danish players and in exactly the same way that the Danish full-back got the ball in a big space, they gave it to Kyle Walker, who is the man who unmarks, but when he raises his head, he looks at the options available to him, they have blocked everything he can do in that situation, he manages to put it in Saka, but his back is to the goal, the defender has touched him strong. he doesn't allow him to turn, he forces him to put him back in this danger area and that whole Just Vibe of lack of intensity was the whole team throughout the game, this is later in the first half.

Denmark have their draw, they are now getting the ball England could be aggressive, they could push, they could really prevail in this game and yet look at the lack of action from the England players here as Denmark enters their half as if it were clear by the way. Foden Bellingham and Kane are supposed to be the first line of pressure, they were playing as a front three, but look how easy it is for Denmark to play the ball through this line, they come out wide to attract Foden and it also creates the angle here, you can even see Trent Alexander Arnold pointing like someone has to notice that player, or Kane has to drop and follow him, which is obviously a total waste of Harry Kane, or you have to have someone like Dean Rice. he jumps to press and they don't either and Denmark just passes that first line like it's not even there and what happens next comes about 30 or 40 seconds later.

I'm not going to show you the full clip, but Denmark doesn't lose the ball in that time, they just keep recirculating it and keeping it and eventually they find a pass and what they manage to find space on the edge of the area now. Phil Foden's name might come up a couple of times in this video, but I just want to stress don't put this on him or say it's his fault or that he's making mistakes. He's clearly been told to play him much narrower because that meant Denmark had all the space in the world to play him wide.

So you can see here, they do that and because Foden doesn't block it, it forces Trippier to break his line to stop the pass, but doing so allows him to pull Dean Rice out of his position to cover, leaving Alexander Arnold alone. on their own and so when they earn it and get that space on the edge of the Box again, look where they put Dean Rice, look where they put Harry Kane, look where they put Kier and Trippier and they get another one There are really many possibilities and now that we've learned these two lessons about the lack of intensity compared to Denmark and the space at the end of the box, would you like to put two and two together and find out how Denmark scored their goal? one shot and because Denmark has them locked up very well, they have all their options cut off.

Harry Kane of all people is forced to drop into some sort of left-back position to receive the ball, but he's not even allowed to do that. they freely press him and he just makes the kind of decision a centre-forward would probably make in a defensive position and throws it into the middle of the field and yes, you have to give Denmark credit here because it's an incisive loss. and it's a brilliant, brilliant strike, but given that it's in England's defensive third from a position where they had the ball, look how close they are to getting any of these players in front of that shot, they have no chance of that's the kind of What can happen, you can't just be set up the wrong way, your game plan may be a little bit wrong, it's something that you hope that when you get to Halime you sit down and go like, guys, we're having. a real problem developing from the back here let's not invite pressure if it's not necessary, let's set it up so that we can play a little more, a little more direct, let them pressure us if possible, but England just didn't learn that lesson in the second half, they locked them in their own corner.

Dean Rice once again found himself drawn into that left-back area to try and cover some of that space and was again under enough pressure to just hook it in the middle of the field because there's nothing else in Denmark, cut it out, there's a bit of confusion, they clearly want him more in that situation and lo and behold, I don't know how many times I have to say in this video Christian Erikson is in a lot of space in the box and should do better with that shot, so okay , I am aware that I am ranting here and I just repeat myself: you understand correctly, England couldn't.

He played from the back and they weren't putting pressure on Denmark and they gave him all their space on the edge, that's in your head, so why did that happen? Why couldn't a team as good as England play against Denmark? I can't put pressure on them in the last third and the answer is just personal and I need to give them this disclaimer again because every time they criticize as a player on YouTube there are people who say why are you blaming him for everything when it's this? the person's fault it's this person's fault this is no one's fault this is just what was happening this is Dean Rice who I like remember we've said a lot of good things about Dean Rice on the channel this year this is the pass map from Dean Rice from that In this game, when you play with Rice and Alexander Arnold in central midfield, it is the responsibility of one of them to take the ball from the four defenders to make the first pass out of the defense, now Alexander wants to be here, wants to do it. damage in the final third of the field, he has killer balls in his locker, that's how you use him so naturally that then Rice has to do the classic number six job and if you are an Arsenal fan or watched Arsenal this season, you will know that that bad form they had, we talked about it on the channel was because they trusted De and Rice to be that exact player.

You let him advance the ball, you let him carry it, you give him a little bit of space, you let him be that kind of advanced number, great, he's world class, he's Majestic, but this is not his game because that incisive pass through a press, what you have to do well is not in his locker, so if you look, you will see that he is able to be very clean and orderly, he can receive it, he can give it, he can move it, he can circulate the ball, he is very good at that , but just look, see for yourself, how many of these are forwards, how many of them? they would break a line of pressure, how many of them would take the Danish players out of the game, it's practically none and we saw this with Arsenal this season when you put Delan Rice in this position, you stop him from playing his game and you force him to play.

In this game two things happen: first, you end up going back and then you have to go long because you have lost all your options and then, when you finally get it in the last third and you have advanced up the field, you end up going around without much movement in front to you because you don't have that pass and these are all of England's failed passes in that game and to be fair there aren't many of them that didn't get the The ball goes too far away but look how many of these are long from deep areas.

They were all a result of them failing to break the Danish pressure line and instead panicking and rushing up the field, and when that happens, it happens like well, this is Harry Kane's heat map, it's on all the places where he could impact the game, look how rarely they can give him the ball in an area where he can do damage and how many times he has to drop it in the middle. 3 to try to receive a long ball you have to go out to the wings to try to relieve a little pressure when you don't work behind you don't work forward and I think what perhaps worried me most about that match is that England is still a very good team, They are still incredibly talented at 11 years old, so even when they don't play as well, they are still able to get into good positions, which is just what they did when they came in. those positions now this is in the first two or three minutes again Bayo Saka receives the ball here and honestly tell me what are his options here, as I know in the last video we said that you need the players to move away from you. you can't congest the same spaces as Bellingham and Foden occasionally do, but this is the opposite extreme of him having nothing short, his overlap is already offside and he's trotting back, there's no one in the right space he offers a maybe. a new one to cut inside there is no center available there is nothing I can do there I just hope he beats that player one on one butagain that can happen, you finish at halftime, you address it, you fix it, you make sure it's not like that.

It won't happen again, this is from the second half, now they have bodies in the area but tell me what is bico saker's option here he has three players attacking the goal but they are all on the same line he can only pass to this player and try putting a cross in front of the goal there is no option for him to come back there is no overlap there is no one on the edge of the box he only has one option that is an option by the way it is up to him to beat this man one on one which is something weirder in football than you think and B, the man marking the near post doesn't read this and just blocks the cross and I mean, Christ, just count the numbers in this picture, how many attacks do you see scored in football when you already Don't you have a four against seven? graphs no more overlays on the field no data nothing true I just want to talk to you.

I have been a big supporter of Gareth Southgate as England manager for a number of years. I am aware of his guilt. I am aware of his flaws. I don't think he's perfect or brilliant by any means, but for me he symbolized an important and vital cultural change in the way the England team works. I'm of an age where I grew up watching Gerard scold. Lampard Rooney Owen was going to all these tournaments and I couldn't for the life of me understand why England didn't win everything, but of course you know that when you get a little older you understand football in a different way and it's obvious of course that those teams were not.

You're going to win everything, you can't just throw all these great players at 11 in a lineup and just magically hope it works. The reason we were getting beat by these teams that didn't have the same stars that we had was because they were just better organized, they had a better plan and that's why over the last few years, when people were pulling their hair out because They always picked Henderson and Phillips was always in the team and always picked Harry McGuire, even when he's shit for Manchester United. It was always like that, yes, because that's how the national team is built, it's not about having the best possible players and waiting for the system to figure it out, but it's also not about having this really smart system and just picking the 11 players. that will make it work.

Despite the talent you have available, it's about striking the right balance between the two, identifying a couple of brilliant players who can work together in a particular system and then building around that and historically in tournaments that's what has done England. you look at the England team that got to the Euro final and the back five were the imp Synergy, they played together very well, but you had Henderson, you had Rashford, you even had the Mason Mount players who were in that 11 despite there being much better talent behind them on the bench because they were making everything work, but now I look at this England team and see Harry Kane up front, who is without a doubt the greatest goalscorer of his generation after one season incredible with his club, but every time England try to press, they seem completely lost at sea.

I see Phil Foden, who practically dragged Manchester City to the Premier League title in Kevin De Bruyne's absence this season, on the left, leaving huge spaces on that side. He comes in to try to affect the game. I see Dean Rice, who was my choice as a PFA player, playing exactly the one role that hasn't worked for him at Arsenal this season and that's what really worries me about this England team. because it seems to me that we are seeing again that golden generation, in quotes, this is, without a doubt, I think the 11 most talented players on the field in this European championship, but they are also the 11 that seem least organized, the reality is that can.

I don't have it all, if you want to defend deep and be this counter attacking side then Dean Rice is not your number choice in the six role, you need someone who is really good under pressure and plays those incisive passes, but if you want to be a high pressure aggressive team, then rush is not your center forward, you need to dominate possession and give him plenty of chances, as look at France at the moment, they are playing Rabio who had a really strange season at Juventus and Angolo Kanté, That I enter. Saudi Arabia while they leave Toua Manyi and Kinga on the bench and that is unthinkable for an England team to do anything that is sensible, but I desperately want to try to finish with some kind of positive right, this is still like I said. at the beginning of the video just a bad performance just a bad result in the group stage of an International Tournament and you've seen countless count the times the last time England had a boring one-nil win and then a desperately miserable draw.

In the second game they made it to the final, so there's a chance that this just clicks in the third game and then in The Knockouts, when they play against really big teams, they take it a step further, but I can't get out of that match Denmark. and I have more than just huge alarm bells ringing behind me, but yeah, that's enough because as you can see, I've been out in the sun all day and I really need to go to bed now, so if you watch that game, if you're an England fan if anyone has a pulse let us know in the comments how you feel about that game B how you feel about the rest of the tournament and C what would be your solution what is your 11 that needs to change Staff wise How should they structure it differently?

We really read it all, it helps us take the pulse of the nation, so everything is very welcome in the comments and more importantly, subscribe to us here at 442. We are trying to break all kinds of records during the euro and we are on our way to achieving it, so if you enjoy this or would like to see more, this button is your friend. Help us out tremendously and hopefully since the content is something you enjoy you'll get a free gift, but of course if you just want to go on social media and say sorry, aren't you the guy who said this was all going to happen? function?

Okay, aren't you the guy who said this was going to be a big high-pressure side? You've ruined my summer, there's Adam Cley on Instagram on Twitter on just about everything I can stand, but until next time. although I really sincerely hope that everything finally works out. I have been Adam Cley, it has been a happy 442 euros for everyone and we will see you soon, goodbye.