Football Matters: England Reality Check

So we now have the dust starting to settle after our first three games of Euro 2016 and a relative failure in our group by finishing second behind Wales so let's have a reality check before we go into the knock-out rounds. It seems after we failed to beat Slovakia a large number of our fans are once again slating England, saying we're embarrassing, never going to win anything and might as well come home now. Great way to pull together as a nation! This is half the problem with our national football – when we win we're brilliant but when we don't we're shite. The truth is that we're somewhere in between and half the problem comes from the unrealistic expectations placed on the team from the fans and media alike. I'm not saying that finishing second is fine as it isn't. I'm not saying that a draw with Slovakia is reasonable as it isn't. But tonight was not down to England on the whole, more down to one man's poor selection and substitutions.

First let's look at the expectation though. As a collective force we seem to believe that the England team should be able to challenge for tournament wins every time we come to one. I don't know whether this is because we feel we should be able to because we won a World Cup on home soil fifty years ago, because we have one of the best leagues in the world or whether some people actual feel we have some of the best players in the world. The first two facts are true but the last one is not. Our league is on par with the Spanish La Liga BBVA and the German Bundesliga and probably better than Italian Serie A these days but the players in our national team are not equal to those from Spain, Germany or Italy (for that matter they're certainly below France and probably below Belgium too). Until we are realistic with where we stand on the international stage then we can never be realistic about our performances in international tournaments. Rather than consider ourselves contenders we need to realise we are more like Sweden, Netherlands and Portugal. The slide started in the early 90s when the money started flooding into the Premier League through Sky TV deals and managers/clubs focussed more on purchasing existing overseas international talent rather than developing young home grown players. As time goes on the pool of quality English youngsters thins out more and more we get to where we are now.

That is where our team is at the moment but with the right manager and the right players coming through in the BPL we could soon be back on the rise. Looking at Hodgson's squad for Euro 2016 you can tell he's gone for a young team with the aim of building a unit ready for World Cup 2018. For me the priority is not winning Euro 2016 but coming out of it with some positive performances and some answers as to which players do and don't have a future in the England set-up. I think the first three games have done that so far on both counts but of course there have been negatives too, mostly once again from the manager. I wish I knew who the 'right manager' was for the future as I think that's half of the problem.

Before we get too downhearted at our group performance though if you're old enough like me to cast your mind back to 1990 you'll know that a great group performance is not the be all and end all. In Italy we had the same record – one win and two draws – as we do now and although that got us through the group in first place they were three very average performances against Ireland, Netherlands and Egypt (probably worse than we've had so far). Having scraped through those games we were heading to penalties against Belgium when David Platt scored a wonder goal and suddenly the nation started to believe and the momentum built and we had a great tournament until unluckily losing to West Germany on penalties in the semi-final. A similar win next Monday against the runner-up in Group F and we could enjoy some football before the summer is out.

The way I see it our three matches went as follows:

Russia 1-1 (BBC Match report & highlights Here)

We were the better side and dominated the play but failed to capitalise on our chances and in the end got caught out with a late goal conceded which Russia did not deserve. We may have only had 52% of the ball but we had 15 shots of which only 5 were on target. Clearly the issue is making chances count as we were in good positions but failed to make them count. Watching the highlights you can see that had Wayne Rooney or Adam Lallana put another one of their good chances away then the points would have been safe. Rooney was man of the match though and Danny Rose was not far behind in my book. Lallana, Dele Alli and Eric Dier were all impressive and in fact only Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane had matches that were below par. Sterling was horrendous, making runs yes, carrying the ball yes but unable to make the right decision when he got where he was going and losing the ball time and time again. The goal at the end of the match seemed to sap some spirit out of the team. The performance had everything but a second goal and that came back to bite them. After this game though I was positive about the future as we actually looked better with the ball than I expected us to before we kicked off.

Wales 2-1 (BBC Match report & highlights Here)

The first half was a very shaky performance in the first half and I don't think the confidence had returned from that Russian equaliser just days before. It got worse when Bale scored a long range free kick which Joe Hart should have saved with three minutes left in the first half. At least on this occasion Roy Hodgson got it right and brought off Sterling and Kane who were again under-performing. One of the substitutes was Jamie Vardy who scored eleven minutes into the second half after barely touching the ball and he shinned the ball in. As England pressed for a winner Wales defended their lead. Sturridge missed a couple of good chances and Marcus Rashford came on for an impressive late cameo. The statistics here were much more dominant as we had 70% of the possession and 20 shots but yet again only 5 were on target. The last of those shots sealed the win as Daniel Sturridge, who came on with Vardy at half-time, scored a late winner two minutes into injury time. That goal seemed to put some belief back into the team at least after they were so deflated following the Russia match. The public gained confidence in Hodgson too as his half-time changes reflected the requests from the nation on social media. One player of particular note for me was Kyle Walker who was fantastic on the overlap down the right. Since Hodgson was too short-sighted to take any real wide players we've had to rely on the full backs pushing forwards.

Slovakia 0-0 (BBC Match report & highlights Here)

All that public confidence in Hodgson disappeared when Hodgson announced his starting eleven and I do believe if he'd started the right team then we may have won and we wouldn't be discussing any issues right now. On a positive note he at least left out Sterling and Kane who had failed to impress in the first match and a half and he did pick Sturridge and Vardy again which most of the public wanted. He also made four other changes though with two full backs and two midfielders being replaced. Over the first two games our best players in my opinion were Rooney, Rose and Walker – Hodgson rested all three. He also dropped Dele Alli who had a good game against Russia and a quiet one against Wales. The decision baffled pundits and fans alike. If he rested them to save their legs then surely that brings their fitness into question if every other team can play their key men in every game of a tournament. If he was doing it to give their replacements a chance to play then it smacks of gross naivety and borderline managerial negligence. The four players brought in were Ryan Bertrand, Nathaniel Clyne, Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere and of those only Clyne had a decent game. All of the blame for not beating Slovakia goes on Hodgson and not the players in my opinion. By changing the side so drastically the team lost momentum. The players left out also risk losing momentum as it will be another week before they get chance to play again. It would not be so bad if the replacements played well but a) Bertrand was poor and looked out of his depth at this level, b) Wilshere was clearly short of match fitness and you have to question why he is in France and c) Henderson had another poor game which backed the criticism of those who question his place in the squad and I'm starting to see their point after justifying his selection pre-tournament. Then Hodgson brings on Rooney with half an hour to go when he clearly needs ten minutes to find his range and get the pace of the game leaving only twenty minutes in which he can be effective. The level of poor decision making was genuinely shocking. I do wonder if Hodgson became over-confident in his decision making abilities after the two successful substitutions against Wales and thought he had the Midas touch. We dominated but failed to score again with 61% of the play, 29 shots and once again the magic number of 5 on target.

The good news is that we are still in the tournament and have a week until we face either Austria, Hungary, Iceland or Portugal in the second round for Hodgson to correct his mistakes (not that he'll admit to making any of course). In three matches so far we've had 64 shots of which only 15 were on target – that's 23% which is dire. The amount of shots is good as we're creating chances and we've averaged 61% possession of the ball. It's not all doom and gloom you see. It's very easy of the back of what was a very under-par performance to criticise England but we are in the next round and we still have time to make it a successful tournament. I guess that depends on your definition of success though. If you think we should be winning it like Spain, Germany or Italy then prepare to be disappointed. If however you agree that we're effectively a second tier European side then a quarter final spot or better will do nicely as preparation for 2018. The key for me is a new manager when this is over as even if we get to the latter stages I don't believe in Hodgson to make the right decisions in two years time anyway.

To finish off with here's my thoughts on England players so far:

GK – Joe Hart – 6/10 – Apart from the horrendous mistake against Wales he's been okay but he still concerns me and I do hope we're looking at Jack Butland in goal in 2018.

RB – Kyle Walker – 9/10 – Good against Russia but brilliant against Wales. Before the tournament I said I would start with Clyne but Walker was so good on the overlap I have every confidence in him now.

RB – Nathaniel Clyne – 7/10 – Solid performance against Slovakia, defended well and supported the attacks. Although I'd start Walker in the next match I would not worry if Hodgson didn't.

LB – Danny Rose – 8/10 – A contender for man of the match against Russia and also impressive against Wales. He defended well and provided the width that Sterling failed to. Only blot on the record is that he was beaten for the header for the Russian goal but he should not have been left to mark an aerial ball.

LB – Ryan Bertrand – 5/10 – Like with Clyne I said pre-tournament I'd start with Bertrand but if the Slovakia game is anything to go by I'm glad we didn't. Looked out of his depth both in attack and defence really.

CB – Gary Cahill – 7/10 – Solid at the back and better than he has been for Chelsea all season that's for sure.

CB – Chris Smalling – 6/10 – Rarely tested and formed a good partnership with Cahill but nearly handed a goal to Slovakia that could have seen us make an early exit. Hopefully an anomaly.

CM – Eric Dier – 7/10 – Consistent in all three performances and scored against Russia.

CM – Dele Alli – 7/10 – If I was splitting his games then it would be an 8 against Russia, 7 against Wales and and 6 against Slovakia as he didn't have enough time to make an impact.

CM – Jordan Henderson – 5/10 – Poor display against Slovakia. Expected better from Liverpool's captain.

CM – Wayne Rooney – 9/10 – He's been England's best player so far which makes the decision to rest or drop him or the more baffling.

CM – Jack Wilshere – 5/10 – Can't say he's out of form when he hasn't played enough to have form. Totally lacking match fitness and sharpness and should have stayed at home.

CM – James Milner – 6/10 – No time to make an impact against Russia.

ATT – Marcus Rashford – 7/10 – Looked lively against Wales and worthy of another game. Did more in 20 minutes than some did in a whole game.

ATT – Raheem Sterling – 4/10 – Really poor against Russia and thankfully subbed off against Wales.

ATT – Adam Lallana – 8/10 – One of England's more consistent players in the tournament. Creates chances but needs to score.

ATT – Harry Kane – 6/10 – Had a great season with Spurs but not brought the form with him.

ATT – Jamie Vardy – 6/10 – Scored with his shin in the Wales game and did nothing else. Ineffective starting against Slovakia and after kneeing one shot on target and fluffing a one-on-one chance he did nothing else of note. Like Bertrand he seems out of place at this level.

ATT – Daniel Sturridge – 7/10 – Still not the finished article but scored a winner against Wales after fluffing earlier chances. Didn't have service of space against Slovakia.