England 0 Slovenia 0: Three Lions dire yet again as they scrape top spot with bore draw after Southgate experiment fails
GARETH SOUTHGATE has the best players in the Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga at his disposal.
And yet England still couldn’t defeat a team ranked 57th in the world.
At the moment the Three Lions boss is a reverse alchemist, turning gold into base metal.
They may be through to the knock-out stages but this England side are frustrating an entire nation after another dismal Group C draw.
We thought it couldn’t get much worse than the 1-1 draw with Denmark last Thursday but this was another performance to have you tearing you hair out and swearing at the telly.
How can a side which possesses Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden be as bad as this?
Slovenia are not very good and were never going to outplay England as the Danes had done.
But despite dominating possession, England barely ever looked like scoring.
Bellingham was anonymous for a second successive game, Foden flattered to deceive and Kane again lacked peak sharpness.
Aside from a barnstorming individual display from Declan Rice, there was nothing to get excited about.
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Nothing to whet the appetite for the knock-out stages, nothing to instil confidence that they can progress much further.
England have won just two of their last games and are in a right old two and eight.
This victory means England cannot play any of Germany, France, Spain or Portugal before the final, with those best four teams in this tournament all on the other half of the draw.
England could play any number of third-placed teams in the last 16 – including Holland – in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday.
But it’s difficult to make England favourites against anyone in this tournament right now.
They have strung together five poor halves of football since a decent opening Serbia.
As expected, Southgate gave up on Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield as a bad job, bringing in Conor Gallagher in a move which hardly got the nation’s pulses throbbing.
And Gallagher was duly dragged off at half-time after a shocking display.
Rice’s bold pre-match talk of England pressing hard and fast and ‘in your faces’ probably hadn’t accounted for such stifling hot weather even with a 9pm local kick-off time.
Slovenia were unchanged after two decent draws and were certainly no easy meat.
But England started off as scruffily – long balls from Pickford, losing possession easily and conceding the first real chance to Benjamin Sesko who headed straight at the England keeper.
Kieran Trippier was booked early on as England struggled to gain control.
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Foden was being given far more licence to roam, while Jude Bellingham tended to hang wide on the left.
Just as England began to get their passing game going, they thought they had taken the lead midway through the first half.
Rice, who had certainly shaken off the effects of his poor display against the Danes, picked a cunning pass to Foden, who was offside before he squared for Buyako Saka to tap in.
Of England’s midfield three, Gallagher was terrible, Bellingham was so frustrated at his lack of influence that he ended up kicking an ad hoarding, but Rice was sensational.
The Arsenal man had talked a good game on the eve of the match – all gung-ho and ‘up and at ’em – and he was playing the same game, winning the ball high up the pitch and at the centre of England’s best work.
Kane, who was livelier than in the previous two games, had a shot on target and then Foden’s curling 30-yard free-kick was comfortably saved by Jan Oblak.
After John Stones had played a positive pass, Trippier’s dangerous cross was missed by Gallagher, with his head, and Kane, with his feet.
There was more booing at half-time but at least England were showing more desire than as against the Danes.
At half-time, Southgate bowed to the inevitable and replaced Gallagher with Mainoo.
The Chelsea man is an honest worker but not an international footballer.
England began to dictate play in the second half, pinning back the Slovenians, winning corners but never quite finding the final ball.
When Slovenia broke, Stones and Guehi got in a terrible tangle and the latter was booked for hauling down Andraz Sporar.
With 20 minutes to go, Cole Palmer replaced Saka for his first involvement in the tournament
Kane was dragged down by Jaka Bijol after turning the centre-half near the edge of the box but Foden wasted the free-kick.
Then Rice took matters into his own hands, surged into the box but blazed wide.
After one swift late interchange Kane fed Palmer but the Chelsea man drove his shot straight at Oblak.
It had been every bit as bad as the Denmark game, as bad as other tournament bore draws against Scotland, the United States, Algeria and Costa Rica.
Yes, England are through. Yes, the draw looks inviting.
But how is it possible to feel any positivity after sitting through this?
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