England narrowly escaped a shock defeat in the Round of 16 of the European Championships, coming back from a goal down to beat Slovakia 2-1 thanks to goals from Bellingham and Kane. The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg wrote that Gareth Southgate’s rigid substitutions were a problem for England.
Steinberg said: “In a lopsided and chaotic game, Southgate had plenty of justification for overplaying his hand with the substitutions. In fact, Southgate stood pat when England were behind. He was too slow to react, taking too long to bring on Ivan Toney to unsettle Slovakia’s back line, instead of leaving Bellingham and Harry Kane on. Either he believed the pair would pull out a winner or he was right to leave them on. He finally introduced Toney at the last minute. He knew Walker could stay on the pitch after perhaps the worst game of his career. He might have been England’s Rory Delap.”
“He refused to use Anthony Gordon on the left wing or bring on Arnold late on when England’s main tactic was to play long balls. Southgate was lucky. He could say Eze, brought on in the 84th minute, had a hand in Kane’s winner, and later toiled in an unfamiliar defensive position. He could argue that Palmer’s free-kick led to England’s second goal; Toney was a nuisance as a target man and provided the assist for Kane’s winner; and if Arnold had come on, Walker would not have had his shot.”
“Unless England somehow, inexplicably, triumph again on their way to Berlin, Southgate’s selections, tactics and in-game substitutions will eventually cost them. Even Southgate admitted Toney was unhappy at being brought on in the last few seconds. Since it worked out, why not make the change earlier? Slovakia could not cope with Toney. It is hard not to think England would have finished the game in normal time if the Brentford striker had come on in the 75th minute.”
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