“They could go out in Last 16 if they carry on playing like that.”
Liam Brady and Damien Duff were already calling England “awful” and “absolutely awful” after 45 minutes of their game against Scotland.
By full-time, they had the carving knives out.
Such is the expectation on Gareth Southgate’s side that they are a draw away from reaching the Euro 2020 knock-out stages and they were still booed off the pitch by their own fans. And it had nothing to do with whether knees were taken or not.
England fashioned a few decent scoring chances against a well organised Scotland side that grew into the game after absorbing pressure in the first 20 minutes. In the end, the Scots squandered three decent looks at goal themselves and the game ended 0-0.
In the RTÉ, after the stalemate, Brady and Duff took lumps out of a “lop-sided, lethargic” England team.
Brady felt Reece James and Jordan Pickford were the best performers from England’s Starting XI. He was not impressed with Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips and suggested the ‘very poor’ Luke Shaw would struggle to start again. The former Ireland talisman saved his worst criticism for the front three.
Harry Kane of England reacts as he is substituted against Scotland at Wembley Stadium. (Photo by Matt Dunham – Pool/Getty Images)“The three superstars they supposedly have up front, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane didn’t show up… Kane looks tired.”
“Southgate will cling onto the fact that they have 4 points and could still qualify as group winners,” Brady added, “but I don’t know.”
Damien Duff was perplexed as to why England switched from playing 3-4-3, since the 2018 World Cup, to 4-2-3-1 for the European Championship. He questioned some of Southgate’s changes, too.
“They take Kane off and leave [Dominic] Calvert-Lewin on the bench… like, Marcus Rashford, top player but plays off the side [of a front three] for Man United.”
“Whether it’s the pressure from the fans or pressure from the media, I don’t know,” Duff added. “Punters were on them tonight. They were on them after 30 minutes against Croatia… I don’t see it [with England], I don’t.”
Brady did feel that England were denied what looked like a clear penalty when Andrew Robertson trod on the foot of Sterling in the closing stages. “Scotland caught a break that they deserved,” he noted.
Both men feel England will still reach the Last 16 but, after tonight, that may be the end of the road.
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