Euro 2024: England win their first game of the Euros but where can Gareth Southgate’s side improve?

Euro 2024: England win their first game of the Euros but where can Gareth Southgate’s side improve?

so a winning start for England so much to get into this morning Mark mccadam good morning to you what went right for England in gson Kirkham last night first of all most importantly they won the game uh significant win it was more of a Pur than a raw from England um but Gare Southgate keeps up this fantastic record four major tournament opening games four major tournament opening wins so therefore he’s doing his job I think there were so many big positives to take from the game of course you have to ignore elements of the second half but I think when you look at the situation a win in their final two games will take them through to the last group stages get out of the group stages which is important you look at the situation now with regards to defensively they look very good that’s five clean sheets in their last five European group games as well which has never been done by a side before so that’s another huge positive H and you look at the way they kind of controlled the first 20 25 minutes you really saw what England were about they just run out of steam in that second half but what you saw was a really Resolute second half defensive performance where Jordan pford when he was called upon was fantastic and defensively they look reasonably solid despite that experience and that physical nouse of the Serbia attack so there were still lots of positives to take from the game it wasn’t the performance overall that I think England fans were hoping for but it’s certainly a good marker and a lot of room to improve on we picked out three players who we we think were the stars of the show based on the ratings we’ve had on our website skysports.com which fans can get involved with as well we’re going to start with Mark Gay the 23y old Crystal Palace Defender has done really well this season for Crystal Palace hence why he’s earned his place not just in the squad but in the starting 11 for that Serbia game 96% pass completion which was really strong 100% in the first half didn’t lose one of his tackles as well and I thought what you saw from Mark Gay he was someone who was calm on the ball he wasal defensively he knew the right times to step up and try and Challenge and win the ball back for England and he wanted to play out from the back as well a little bit like Harry MaGuire very similar in that time in terms of uh kind of the style of football that he has so I thought that was definitely one of the key positives Declan rice he’s been superb for Arsenal all season and once again you saw another brilliant performance in the middle of the park had a lot to do last night not just to get forward but try and protect the back four as well at 96.3% pass complete which was strong 90 touches in total and 10 ball recoveries as well so you’re you’re seeing the ability for him to win the ball back and break things up and just do what he has done so well for Mikel artetta last but not not least we know the man the star of the show the man that got the winning goal the only goal Jude Bellingham we spoke about the record there uh he writes his own scripts doesn’t he whatever Jude wants to do he seems to do it the most touches in the game most passes in the final third he has been once again the main man for England and yeah those are thoughts of a couple of the players on a great performance from Jude Bellingham and yes it was a win and that’s the big positive and you talked about the positive performances of a few of the players but a few areas of concern potentially what do you think England need to improve on when they play against Denmark on Thursday well I think like you say it’s it’s it’s weird because you look at the performance and there are lots of good things lots of milestones for players individually nice balance there of experience and and the energy and the you know the fearlessness from Jude Bellingham um but there are certain players that will think I can do much better for England and G Southgate and his back room team will be looking at the situation they’ll be crunching the numbers looking at things and thinking right these are Big key areas that we can improve on for that Denmark game the second uh group match we’ve broken down some some of the numbers as well to look at things and you can see a real difference between the first half performance and the second half performance um let’s take a look at the situation here with regards to England’s possession lost and you can see in the first half in the defensive half they lost it eight times in the middle third 17 times in the second half dares completely different you can see very different performance they’re losing the ball far more often in the defensive half 19 times over double that in the first half and in the middle thirdd they lost the ball 23 times as well so you can see the difference there between the first 45 minutes and the second and then that that leads on to the situation where you’re looking at the long balls that England are playing now in the first half 8% of their forward passes were long balls in the second half 12.3% were long balls so you can see the transition there obviously England trying to get out trying to play they were a lot deeper in that second 45 minutes and a lot more of their passes forward were long balls and of course that meant Harry Kane isolated on his own trying to win the ball back trying to hold it up and win fre kicks and just try and take England up the pitch because at large chunks of that second half they were very very deep which is something you haven’t seen from England for some time and then when you look at the passing situation in the final third you can see the differences again here uh when they took on Serbia last night uh passes in the opponent’s half England dominating Serbia in the first half 19 to 192 and you can see passes in the final third almost three times as many for England compared to Serbia in that first half and then the numbers flip second half 163 passes uh Serbia out past England in their own half uh in that second half and then passes in the final third you can see the difference once again so um yeah a little bit concerning there the way England dropped off in the second 45 minutes but again room for improvement room to to look at the situation and improve of course and the other thing I think that’s important to look at this is the first half and second half average positions dares so you can see in that first 45 minutes England on the halfway line defensively in a good structure you can see that Kieran trippier was getting forward where possible nice and solid protected by Dean rice and you’ve got the outlet Baio saaka right up there he was a constant threat on that right hand side he had his best half there looked dangerous every time he got the ball and you could see that Trent and K Walker were looking for those balls into the channel they were looking to try and exploit the left back for Serbia put him under pressure and that’s where they got so much of their Joy second half dsh completely different England very deep big gap here as well where Duan hadit had so much space to try and operate in you can see Kieran Tripp’s position much more defensive minded you can see the gap between the two Center halfes there very very deepen and you can see this collection of players here so even Jord even Jordan pigford’s retreated look he has no but genuinely you can see the difference in the first half and the second half this is the average position between the uh the two England sides there in first and second half there so again something to work on something to look at a lot more defensive there and of course that’s not what you want to see you want to see players in advanced position so yeah more room for improvement there Paul meron assessed England’s performance and believes there are areas to improve on in the morning you have all the enthusiasm in the world you think you know two3 nil we do but that’s the norm is it what we see tonight has been the norm for a few years now started off so well first 15 minutes were outstanding we’re patient passed the ball moved there was a lot of good play get the goal sort of got bored got bored with it get bored with keeping the ball then we start losing the ball giving it away and and they got on the top the last 10 minutes of the first half and lucky enough halftime kman never really got going again I think we we we never be we never able to change it you know we start well and then it goes not good but we can never get that from good to good again and then it stays like that for the rest of the game no one wanted the ball everybody was hiding I felt they were hiding [Music]

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Report from Euro 2024 as Jude Bellingham heads England to opening-game win which puts them top of Group C; Gareth Southgate’s side were dominant in first half but suffered in second, despite Harry Kane’s header being pushed onto the bar; England next in action against Denmark on Thursday

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