Gareth Southgate’s choice of formation was understandable but there was no doubt England lacked creativity
As England dropped deeper and deeper in the second half, as they succumbed to the same problem holding a lead that had beset them against Colombia and Croatia at the World Cup, the temptation was to wonder if anything had really changed. Why is it that England so often take the lead in big games and so often end up turning in on themselves, as though every battle must be turned into a re-enactment of General Gordon’s defence of Khartoum?
But perhaps that is unfair, or at least to oversimplify the issue. That England failed to hold a lead – again – does not mean that caution was the wrong approach, at least from the outset. Southgate’s strength in this tournament has been devising specific plans for specific games. And for over an hour here it worked. It did for a time seem that England were going to contain Italy. A substitute brought on slightly earlier, perhaps, and that slow doomed retreat might not have occurred. But then the best-laid plans can go awry: the two players Southgate brought on specifically to take penalties both missed.
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