It’s fair to say the England Under-21s didn’t get off to the start they were hoping for against Portugal in the European Championship on Thursday, but they’ll be happy to know they’ve got a chance to right those wrongs on Sunday.
But, how exactly will they do that?
1. Support Harry Kane
Kane looked sporadically dangerous when he got the ball – but, the thing was, he hardly ever got the ball. He needs more support, either from a second striker like Danny Ings or from a different formation that allows players to get up the pitch quicker.
We all know what a great talent Kane is, and he came close to scoring a few times without any help from his teammates. Just imagine the impact he could have if they started to play off him, like they had been in qualifying.
2. Own the midfield
James Ward-Prowse has a touch of class about him and it was a surprise when he was removed by Southgate a few minutes into the second half against Portugal.
Many see the Southampton midfielder and Derby’s Will Hughes as an ideal partnership, and against Sweden – with no William Carvalho to contend with – it could be an ideal opportunity for the pair to dictate things.
3. Believe
It was worrying to see the belief absolutely vanish from the England players the moment Portugal scored. The goal seemed to utterly deflate them – they’ll have to have a more unshakable confidence in their own ability than that if they’re going to be successful.
4. Take Luke Garbutt off free-kicks
The Everton full-back has clearly got talent, but his dead-ball delivery against Portugal was woeful. There are other options in the team – Ward-Prowse sticks out as someone who is less likely to waste such opportunities.
5. Show more confidence at the back
It was painfully obvious how much of a difference John Stones could have made to the England defence if he was fit, and not just defensively. Liam Moore had a pretty poor game against Portugal, while also looking very uncomfortable on the ball.
With Stones not available at least until the game against Italy, England need to find a centre-back who’ll be able to slide balls down the side of the midfield from defence like Stones often does. At the very least, they need to play someone who won’t constantly panic and pass it back to Jack Butland for him to lump out of play.
This England Under-21 side are very good at playing football, but they need their defence to be full confidence for that to happen.
6. Be humble
Should England find themselves going ahead at any point, they’ll be well advised to keep their celebrations low key. In their qualifying play-off for this tournament, France’s Layvin Kurzawa scored late on, a goal seemingly set to send his side to the finals, before waltzing over to Sweden’s John Guidetti and giving him a farewell salute.
It was case of chickens being counted long before they’d hatched though, as Oscar Lewicki replied with a goal of his own, sending through a Sweden team who all gleefully repeated Kurzawa’s celebration in an act of sweet revenge.
That’s an experience the England players probably don’t want to have.
Source: SNAPPA
