England won the game but they lost control and played sloppy in the second half. Thankfully they have Jude Bellingham and he is brilliant.
1) On a night when the TV tributes to Sven-Goran Eriksson were unexpectedly poignant, “first half good, second half not so good” feels like an appropriate initial conclusion.
England had been calm and dominant before the break, perfectly comfortable in their status as one of the favourites to win the tournament, but after what seemed like a half-time scolding they looked panicked, open, sloppy and unnecessarily vulnerable as Serbia improved dramatically. As Serbia grew, England grew smaller before our eyes.
Before the match we were worried about our defence and encouraged by the wealth of talent in attack, but in the end England won narrowly with just three shots on target to Serbia’s one. Our defence was generally solid but we struggled to create clear-cut chances, which was not in the script.
But thankfully, the script calls for a winning opening match, and I have to legally accept that that’s what matters at this stage. As expected, England will lose in the semi-finals.they have to get there first. They are definitely on the right track.
Read: England players assessed against Serbia: Bellingham in charge, Kane quiet, Saka showing positive signs
2) England has seen a lot of turnover across the team – around half of the 26 players who played in the World Cup have retired in just over 18 months – but a look at the squad sheet shows that there has been very little change. The starting XI for Serbia included eight players who started against France in Qatar, two of those three being changes due to injury and the other an enforced change for Jordan Henderson.
Cole Palmer has emerged. Kobe Mainu has emerged. But this is not a new England team. This is the same England team, with Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, replacing Henderson at heart with his dynamism and delivery. And just as at the World Cup, this team works well enough. Whether it will work when England face France again is another question. I think we know the rather depressing answer.
3) There were doubts about Marc Guehi, a relative newcomer to the English defence, but he played exemplary, winning a header as Serbia tried to equalise and treating the ball like an old man, achieving a 100% pass success rate by half-time.
It can be easy to impress as a centre-back when you have real aerial attack and are scoring header after header, but when you only have three or four key decisions to make during a game and you can make them all perfectly, that’s the mark of a good defender who is comfortable playing elite football. If Guehi maintains this level of performance in Germany, he likely won’t be playing anything other than elite club football for long after this summer.
4) There were few defensive errors initially for England. John Stones had Guehi to thank for an easy pass from Aleksandar Mitrovic. The only dangerous moment in the first half was a mistake by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
One sloppy touch in a position where he is still considered a relative novice, but ultimately it didn’t do any harm and hopefully a lesson was learned about concentration and overconfidence – mistakes in front of a back four can be incredibly costly than those made higher up the pitch as an attacking full-back.
5) Five minutes later, England were in possession and their wavering confidence was restored when Alexander-Arnold’s athletic anticipation led to them winning the ball back and completing a rare counter-attack. Kyle Walker should have run with his trademark crazy speed and fired the ball towards goal, only to find himself off-balance as he tried to find Harry Kane.
But this brief snapshot really shows Alexander-Arnold learning on the job. He may be in the midfield to distribute the ball, but he also has to defend. Recycle. Regenerate. Declan Rice is great in that role in front of the defence, but you can’t expect him to do the job of two men.
6) At this point, England were leading 1-0. I’ve delayed mentioning it because I don’t want to draw any conclusions about Jude Bellingham’s incredible talent at 16 points. That’s a story for another day. And 16 points might be hard to come by.
“We think he can play anywhere on the pitch except goalkeeper and be the best player in England. Deep, wide and at the heart of the attack, Bellingham is exceptional. The Serbian midfield had already fouled him twice when he scored a header in the 13th minute that was 50% a run from deep and 50% a desire to take the lead.”
It was a simple goal from a player who rendered breathtaking brilliance ordinary.
After many years of Harry Kane’s England team, it’s now Jude Bellingham’s England team – and hopefully that will be the case for the next 12 years at least.
7) It took Kane 18 minutes to touch the ball, which is no small thing for him to take lightly. With Bellingham as the No. 10, Kane doesn’t have to hunt around for the ball and scatter passes wide to a talented winger who has been around for nearly a decade.
He’s in this England team, one of the best No. 9s in the world, and his role is to be high up the pitch at centre-back, ready to take whatever chance comes his way. He deserves credit for half of that role – the half that doesn’t make the headlines – but he failed to take the only chance Jarrod Bowen created for him that would have made the final 10 minutes of the game easier for all of us.
His only real celebration of the night came after a defender’s header, only to miss another Harry after all.
MAILBOX: Harry Kane could be left out of England squad due to being ‘sluggish and sluggish’
8) Although Bukayo Saka didn’t get the assist for Bellingham’s goal because his cross was deflected, he still deserves praise for his performance in the first half. Saka doesn’t skimp. Whether it’s getting around an opponent, cutting back or putting in a cross, he always makes the right decision. Every decision seemed to confound Serbia in the first half.
There’s been a lot of talk about Bellingham and Phil Foden (a relative unknown) heading into this tournament, but everyone seems to have written Saka off. His influence waned in the second half as Serbia abandoned the controversial tactic of playing by fear of their own shadow, but if this was a middling Saka, it’ll be exciting to see him at his best.
9) We were concerned that England went into half-time with just one shot on goal despite passing the ball around Serbia with ease. There was fluidity and flow but little punch.
As Cesc Fabregas warned at half-time amid the self-congratulations of England’s pundits, this team must learn to attack. There is none of the devastating ruthlessness of the champions. And he should know it. Despite all the pre-tournament hoopla about having the best attacking players in the world, England’s team is still only just, almost, maybe very good.
10) Did they think they had won the game? It was a big shock to us that Serbia were much better in the second half and never regained the composure we had in the first half when we were mostly relaxed. We allowed Serbia to play a chaotic game and there was very little quality play from either team in the second half. A better team would have certainly punished England.
Alexander-Arnold stabbed the goalkeeper’s hands and created a great chance for Bellingham, but he began to look a little lost in midfield as England lost more and more control. It was no surprise to see him replaced by Conor Gallagher, but it’s a little disappointing that Chelsea’s vibrant bundle of energy is the go-to option when England need a win. more Not less control.
11) Kieran Trippier’s mistakes almost caused some pain and the slightly out-of-form Stones gave way to a few easy passes, but England generally defended very well. We were worried they would be facing a sizeable Serbia team (literally) but they rose to the challenge incredibly well.
It probably helped that they left Premier League defenders to do their Premier League thing and Serbia had no real tricks to give them serious problems, forcing Jordan Pickford into just one save that could be classed as “decent but you’d be criticised if you didn’t prevent it”.
There was no bombardment, no flurry of chances, but there was no real control either, which worries me.
12) It was telling that Gareth Southgate made his second substitution, bringing on Jarrod Bowen rather than Cole Palmer. Bowen’s straightforward play almost led to the second goal of the game, but the Serbian goalkeeper kept out Kane’s header.
We’re happy to admit we were wrong – we overlooked what role Bowen would play in the England team – but it’s clear that the complement to Foden’s charges and dribbles is good old-fashioned winger play from the right. For England, that player is Saka, but Bowen is the closest substitute. Again, England’s most effective attacks came from the right wing.
13) Do we need to talk about Phil Foden? Some think he’s a waste on the left wing, but he only nominally plays there. He played centrally last week against Iceland, but the results were poor.
He has scored one goal and zero assists for England since the World Cup, and although he was one of eight survivors of the defeat to France, the truth is that he is in the England team more because of his form for Manchester City this season than for England.
It may be fortunate for him that Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish and James Maddison have all dropped out, leaving him alone on the left wing – for a moment – before he strays into the middle.
14) Bellingham ended up winning the race, with Kobe Mainu taking his place. Mainu is already a teenager in the “see it all” role. Holy crap. It’s sad to see Henderson go in these moments. Mainu is barely hanging on enough to score points.
15) England finally won but, once again, there are more questions than answers. Apart from left-back Luke Shaw, England had the best team but Conor Gallagher was the next worst performer. When England needed more control, Southgate opted for Gallagher and Bowen’s buzzing flies.
Declan Rice’s performance will be praised, but he was part of a midfield that began to cede control as soon as Serbia realised the weaknesses of the English team. We’ve been preaching for weeks that the street wisdom that “England should win the tournament” is not rooted in reality, and we wouldn’t be pleased if we were initially proven right. We want to be wrong.
16) Jude Bellingham is such a great guy that he could probably do it all on his own.
