Tonight England will play their 2nd game against an attacking German side after they suffered a blow against Italy.
In the ongoing international break, England played their first game against Italy. Midfield is considered the most important position that can decide the fate of each team in a football match. But despite having reasonable control of the midfield and a better pass accuracy in the game against Italy, England lost by 1-0.
Let's review the causes of England's loss against Italy.
Mistakes in Final Third.
Forwards were not able to get into good positions as well as the one with the ball in their final third was less interested to pass and more interested to score. Hence England failed to create sure-shot goal-scoring opportunities. Italy's defense was covering the shooting channels well, hence most shots either sailed over the bar or got blocked.
In situations when England was getting opportunities to attack, Italy was quickly falling back as a Unit and England failed to break their defensive structure. The English forward and the team management need to find an answer to such situations.
2. Mistakes in Defense.
If the English forward line was not playing top-level football, the defensive line was awful on many occasions:-
Italian forwards were easily getting past their English marker to lash on the low crosses. It is another matter that they couldn't convert those opportunities. But situations like those revealed the vulnerabilities in England's defensive line and where they needed to work before walking in for the WorldCup.
In one situation Maguire missed his man who was making an in-behind run and could easily split the defense and lashed onto the low cross but unfortunately missed the target by a few inches.
England conceded the goal when Italy's no. 10 Raspordi was easily able to get past Kyle Walker, did a cut behind, positioned himself, and adjusted the ball to shoot towards the right side of the net past Goal-Keeper Nick Pope. Walker failed to recover and block the shooting lane.
Where should England improve?
Tonight England will be playing against an attacking Greman side who loves to attack breathlessly with Werner, Gnabbry, Muller, and Sane upfront. England should and must focus on their man-marking and prevent any in-behind run unmarked during transitions.
Forwards should commit to a little more passing rather than going full-direct in front of the goal. This might help them to create more threatening and realistic opportunities. England has good quality upfront and forwards like Harry Kane should keep the shots on target and test the German Keeper.
Conclusion:-
Going into conclusion, I can say Woodgate the England team manager will surely work on these issues and might like to replace Maguire, who has been making the same mistakes again and again which made him a non-starter in the Manchester United squad under Erik Ten Hag, this season.
Who is the favorite?
Germany
England
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