Danes take home the bacon

Andy Munro comments on England’s performance against Denmark.

It really was a turgid performance by England against the Danes, and we undoubtedly deserved to lose irrespective of being a man down.

Our build up was painfully slow and lacking creativity while at the back we looked as nervous as the proverbial kitten. The main point was that potent though Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford can be, they still need the service delivered in a sharp and incisive way. It absolutely cried out for Jack Grealish (and dare I say it even Ross Barkley) to provide that flash of genius or even Mason Mount playing in a proper midfield role. Instead ,we suffered the laboured Rice and if Kalvin Phillips is England class I’m willing to go out specially to buy a hat so I can eat it.

The back line was even worse and their shaky and erratic performance must have had Big Jack Charlton and Bobby Moore turning in his grave – ditto Jordan Pickford and Gordon Banks. In fact, the only two players to come out with enhanced reputations (although the same could probably be said for Grealish) were Connor Coady and Reece Williams, although the latter blotted even his copybook with a display of indiscipline that puts him alongside most of the current England Yoof who would have got short thrift from Sir Alf.

Prospective winners of the next World Cup? Gareth Southgate’s England is a case style over substance I’m afraid, and under the current manager even the style is missing.