Coach Gareth Southgate agreed with captain Harry Kane after two lackluster performances at Euro 2024, especially a disappointing 1-1 draw against Denmark. Kane also said that England’s biggest weakness was possession and acknowledged they did not know how to apply pressure when opponents started to drop deep.

Apart from the opportunity to score the opening goal, Harry Kane was almost “starved for the ball”.

England is sometimes criticized for playing too deep, especially when it comes to giving up possession too quickly and failing to develop offensive plays from the back. That was a crucial component of Thursday’s tie with Denmark as well as the victory over Serbia. “We always start games well, but when a couple of the opposition players drop deeper, we don’t know how to press,” Kane said when asked what went wrong by BBC Sport. We attempted to alter that in the second half by having Jude Bellingham and I play in front of their two midfield players and making an effort to climb back up, but it was challenging. Denmark has a strong squad that advanced to the Euro semifinals. Overall, we must reflect on the past and identify areas for improvement.

The 30-year-old continued, “We’re struggling with and without the ball,” acknowledging that England has occasionally lacked possession. In both games, the pressing hasn’t been reliable. In terms of maintaining possession of the ball and performing well under duress, we haven’t played up to par. We are aware that we can do better. There will be a lot of commotion and perhaps resentment at home, but it was also present during our Euros draw with Scotland. Getting things done even when you’re not playing well is a sign of a good team.

Coach Gareth Southgate and his captain both pointed out that their biggest weakness is their ability to hold the ball.

For his part, Southgate says his team needs to step up and acknowledges that supporters were let down by their first two performances. He told BBC Sport, “It’s obviously not what we expected.” “We didn’t play the ball well enough, and when you play that way, sometimes you get hurt like we did tonight. We didn’t perform to our full potential. Although it will be difficult to put them under strain given their adaptable defenses, we must perform better than we have in the last two games.

“Not having the ball was a big part of the problem, but that was part of it as well,” Southgate stated. “The performances we delivered demonstrated the enormous burden. We had to keep going because we knew, and rightfully so, that the performances would disappoint the audience. We needed to improve.