Euro 2020: Scotland exposed England’s biggest issues – What needs changing?

England took on Scotland at Wembley in one of the most anticipated international games at Euro 2020.

Some fans thought it would be a walk in the park for the Three Lions, others, like me, thought it would be the hardest game in the group.

The game was an incredibly hard-fought contest that spent most of the time in the middle of the pitch. Chances were few and far between and arguably, Scotland was the better side throughout.

It finished 0-0, leaving one side frustrated and one side quite a lot more jubilant, having controlled England for most of the 90 and picked up their first point of Euro 2020.

England had a few chances early on, John Stones put a free header onto the post but then slowly fell off, with Scotland coming into the fold and England had no answers.

Gareth Southgate pulled out Phil Foden around the 60th minute, despite him being one of the only creative sparks in the game, to give Jack Grealish his much-awaited tournament debut.

Grealish gave it his best shot but could not seem to get anyone else interested. Harry Kane left the pitch 15 minutes before the end for Marcus Rashford, but blink and you wouldn’t have known that change would have happened.

So, England looked lacklustre, slow, and off, so what’s gone wrong?

England’s Attacking Options

The Three Lions failed to create any real opportunities after Stones early header. Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount looked lost for most of the game and like they had no answers to Scotland’s defensive structure.

A change was most definitely needed, but Southgate waited till the 63rd minute to do so and took off the only player that was finding holes in the opposition’s backline in Foden.

Granted Grealish gave it a good go, but to leave the likes of Jadon Sancho, who has 114 goal contributions in 137 for Borussia Dortmund, Jude Bellingham, who had a good cameo against Croatia and Striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the bench.

If you’re looking for a goal and to leave these options on the bench asks questions. I understand in a group game a point is better than nothing, but England were begging for someone to come on and challenge the Scotland backline, and they failed to even propose an argument.

Southgate made a comment about protecting youngsters following the game, but Scotland played 20-year-old midfielder Billy Gilmour, who was given Man of the Match and pretty much had the entire England midfield in his pocket along with Harry Kane… If you’re old enough, you’re good enough.

England can’t handle the pressure

This brings me on to my second issue, Scotland were the first team to really step up and have a go at England in a long while, and it showed.

It can be argued that England underestimated this game and there’s no doubt there was a lot of pressure around it.

The Scots defended exceptionally, and this isn’t to take anything away from that, but the England team is full of a lot of talent and it struggled to create anything at all.

All English Premier League

In the face of pressure, they struggled, hard and begs the question, can this team play when it’s not allowed all the freedom it was against Croatia?

Both fullbacks in Luke Shaw and Reece James failed to show any of the crossing prowess they are known for.

James made the squad on his very good cameos for England and his ability to beat players when playing for Chelsea, looked completely lost in this game.

Harry Kane was almost non-existent in parts as the two wingers struggled to create an ounce for him, despite the chance missed before he came off.

On a whole, despite the Scots tight defending England couldn’t figure anything out and didn’t bring on anyone who could.

Togetherness will get you far, but a lack of tactical awareness and cool heads will see you fall time and time again.

In England, we’re known for getting overhyped about our football team and maybe we were after beating Croatia, but the team we have should be really testing Scotland, instead, we massively underwhelmed.

You would be forgiven for thinking this is an overreaction as England are basically through to the knockout round, but the Three Lions will need to answer a lot of questions against the Czech Republic.