Mickey Ambrose reflects on the opening games of the Euros 2024 and finds an England squad that needs some pep from his pop

Come on England! Stop blaming Southgate or I will fly my 90-year-old Dad to Germany to give you a kick up the backside.

Fans watching the Euros like me and my Dad should be happy that we are top of the group. But something’s not working.

On paper we have quality players who play in the Premier League, described as the best league in the world. So why is it that these same players cannot control the ball or pass to each other?

It should be easy to correct, so they get back to playing like they did in the opening 30 minutes against Serbia. I don’t think you can blame the Manager for a group of players who look like they are not wanting to try. But I can assure you, these players want to win and win in style – they are just not gelling at the moment.

I listened to former England captain Rio Ferdinand who has questioned Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate’s tactics and said their approach in their 1-1 draw against Denmark “lacked any sort of direction”.

We have seen how England, considered as contenders for the title, followed up their functional 1-0 win over Serbia with a flat second performance.

“Our players are too good to sit back and wait and hope to get through a game,” Ferdinand told BBC Sport. “We need to get to the bottom of whether the players are being told to do this or forced by the opposition.”

Later, when being asked by a reporter whether he told the players once we went one up to sit back Gareth said gave an emphatic ‘No’!

“Denmark were well drilled and forced England to look very average,” said Ferdinand. He went on to say our best, most decisive players are at the top of the pitch and we chose to sit back and defend.

“It just concerns me,” he said. “when I see the standard of players out there.” I agreed with Rio, only Guehi seems to be on his toes. While others seemed flat footed, Guehi reacted quickly to a mistake he made and foiled a certain goal with a superbly well timed tackle in the penalty area.

“But I look at the other players and they don’t look the same as they do for their clubs,” said Ferdinand.

Southgate has been criticised for a conservative approach at previous major tournaments, when England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 Fifa World Cup and the final of Euro 2020 but were perceived not to have shown their full attacking potential.

Phil Foden hit a post in the 59th minute in Frankfurt in a rare moment of promise on an evening when Denmark had seven of the 11 attempts on target.

“Lacklustre, lacking any sort of direction, we were overshadowed tactically,” ex-Manchester United centre-back Ferdinand replied when he was asked to describe England’s display.

“At the moment, it doesn’t look good for them individually or as a team. There’s so much room for improvement. The team balance isn’t allowing the players to perform at their best.

“England looked like they were looking over their shoulder for advice and guidance on when to go. That can’t happen at this level.” At the time of writing, England are top of Group C on goal difference ahead of their final match of the opening stage against Slovenia so let’s hope firstly we win and get into the last 16.

We’ll see if they solve their problems. And they might get help from one familiar face who might help with his analysis – David Moyes, who has bounced back from his departure from West Ham. It was good to see him as a television pundit trying to put the bravest face in the face of Scotland’s difficulties. They haven’t made it through, but England should and whether they go much further remains to be seen.

Mickey Ambrose is a former Chelsea and Charlton player who lives in Stratford.

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