Euro 2024: Personality
England are not great. They have got lucky. But one thing their squad definitely has, is personality.
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By Patric Ridge
Somehow, someway, England are in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
They are indebted to Jordan Pickford, Bukayo Saka, and to some composure when it really mattered in their penalty shootout win over Switzerland on Saturday.
Gareth Southgate, just about, won his 100th game in charge of the Three Lions (even if the stats boffins don’t actually count penalty shootout victories as wins). And England will face the Netherlands next.
But it was far from convincing. Again.
I have been pretty negative about England over the course of Euro 2024, and frankly, I think that negativity has been largely justified.
There really has been little to write home about for England. The tactics have been poor, the system has been a mess, and some players have not performed anywhere near to the level we know they are capable of.
There seems to be an idea that this has all been Southgate’s masterplan, that he has meant for England to scrape by on, mostly, luck — but that can’t be the case. He has simply proved that he is possibly not the right manager to take this generation of superstars (or potential superstars) forward into future tournaments. And if not for moments of magic from the likes of Jude Bellingham and Saka, they would have gone home at some stage over the past eight days.
Then again, football is about those moments, and England do have the calibre of players that can produce them. They do have Bellingham; they do have Saka; they do have, in Pickford, a goalkeeper who has always stood up when he has been needed.
The worry would be when England come up against a team that also has a similar calibre of player. The Netherlands might not have the strength in depth that the Three Lions do, but they certainly have some players who can turn a match on its head in an instant.
What is getting England through this tournament, though, is personality. Their players have it in abundance.
Bellingham has his ‘Who else?’ celebration.
Saka showed so much mettle and mental strength to coolly slot home his spot-kick against the Swiss, a little under three years on from the disgusting abuse he had to endure in the wake of missing against Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
Pickford continues to defy his critics, which you’d like to think would be dwindling in their numbers, yet every now and then there are some truly bizarre takes about England’s number one.
Pickford has now has saved four of the 14 penalties he has faced in shootouts at major tournaments, twice as many as all other England goalkeepers combined saved between 1990 and 2012.
Stat from Opta
Then there’s Cole Palmer, who showed the composure from 12 yards that he has all season for Chelsea, and has been fearless when called on from the bench.
Ivan Toney made a defining impact against Slovakia and nailed his penalty against Switzerland. Trent Alexander-Arnold, having been thrust into an unfamiliar role in the group stage, scored the winning spot-kick — one he seemingly was not too keen to take, but he did it anyway.
Ezri Konza came in for Marc Guehi and stuck to his task manfully. Kobbie Mainoo has shown why he should have been the midfield partner for Declan Rice from the off.
But call me miserable, I must have been watching a different game to the pundits and assorted journalists gathered into the Dusseldorf Arena on Saturday — they all seemed to think the level of the performance was better, that Southgate’s tactical tweaks worked. They didn’t. The display was just as disappointing and disjointed as those that had come before it.
Phil Foden did look brighter in patches in a role more suited to him in this side, but still, his team-mates were too slow to find him for much of the match. Harry Kane continues to either cut an isolated figure, or drop so deep that he is ineffective due to a lack of runners in behind that can benefit from his exquisite range of passing.
And Southgate continues to look befuddled and continues to be reactive. You can say his changes worked against the Swiss, but be honest with yourself, it was a split-second of quality from a top-class player that had been on the pitch the whole time, and Switzerland had just scored and so were all the more likely to sit back. By the end of extra time, England were holding on for penalties.
But, they are there — they’re in the last four. Ninety minutes (or, given their recent track record, at least 120) away from a successive Euros final.
And if they are to go on and win it from here, then it will be the personality of the squad, as talented as the individuals are, that gets them over the line.
For Southgate’s faults, and they have been clearly evidenced in Germany, he has created that culture — that personality — and for that, he must be appreciated.