England’s biggest regret is that World Cup glory was there to take

[ad_1]

At the last World Cup England lost in the semi-finals to Croatia but if we are being completely honest they would probably have been beaten by a full strength France in the 2018 final even if they had gone further.

In recent European Championships, Italy has been the best team in the tournament. They deservedly beat England in the final.

In 2022, France cannot claim to have asserted its supremacy like Croatia and Italy. They still had better personnel in the starting line-up, but England played better and commanded the respect of their prospective winners.

It also means that we are entitled to judge this England team on different criteria when analyzing how and why they failed.

While England lost to Croatia and Italy due to their inability to cope with the quality of their opponents, they were beaten by France because they could not capitalize when they were the better team.

That was a huge disappointment of the evening. There was a moment when I felt like England had control and needed to decide whether to roll the dice and move on.

When Kane equalized with the first penalty, it felt like there would only be one winner. That was when Southgate faced one of the biggest dilemmas of his reign.

As a coach, it is easier to make a substitution when the team is performing poorly. If your team is at the top, the concern is that change will disrupt the flow.

England were 1-1 ahead, however there was still a strong case for being proactive off the bench because before kicking the ball it was astonishing how much weaponry Southgate had on the bench compared to Didier Deschamps.

This is not a point to be touched upon later. I wrote a lot before and during the game. It is hard to ignore the feeling that the strength England had in the team had not been fully exploited when the moment of truth came.

Southgate was criticized for this in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2021 because he did not change the momentum with the substitutions. Although I understood these remarks, the changes needed then were to stop the opposition.

On this occasion, killing options were available, such as moving Phil Foden into central territory and bringing in a wide player – Marcus Rashford or Jack Grealish – much sooner.

[ad_2]