How Spain ruthlessly took advantage of England’s lack of collective quality at Euro 2024

Spain were worthy winners of the Euro 2024 final, but from England’s perspective the scrutiny should not be about how much better their opponents were on the night in Berlin, but how they were so much better throughout the tournament.

If you had to rank the performances of the 14 teams in this competition based on quality, you would list Spain’s seven teams and then England’s seven teams. This was the extent of the difference. Spain impressed and thrilled in every game. Like every side they had weaknesses, but those weaknesses generally arose from their bravery and commitment to the attack.

England’s performance in the group stage was weak, never attacking, but at least being strong defensively. And then, in the knockout rounds, England conceded more expected goals (xG) than in all four matches if you remove the penalty they were awarded in the semi-final against the Netherlands.

And based on the respective starting XIs, that shouldn’t be the case at all.

In the most recent Ballon d’Or, which is now contested on a seasonal rather than an annual basis and was therefore decided around this time last year, Spain did not have a single player on the 30-man shortlist. UK newspaper The Guardian’s list of the world’s best 100 players, polled at the end of 2023, had only three Spaniards in the top 70. Of those three, Gavi missed all of Euro 2024 due to injury, with Pedri ruled out. Rodri missed the rest of the tournament after suffering an injury early in the quarter-final against Germany, forcing him off at half-time in the final.

You suspect that many Spanish players will be higher in this year’s rankings. But the point is – by these measures, they were essentially without any established world-leading stars last night in a crucial 45-minute period after the break.

It was, ultimately, a victory of teamwork and solidarity over individualism.

The above list featured at least 13 of England’s top 100 players, including some who were not included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Euro 2024. England’s trump card coming into the tournament was arguably the Premier League’s best player. (Phil Foden), the Bundesliga (Harry Kane) and La Liga (Jude Bellingham).

England had no shortage of star power. There was lack of coordination among them.

It is difficult to find any single collective concept, England have performed well in seven matches. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s distribution was often very direct and when England attempted to play out from the back, there was no clear pattern. Their passing network from the final shows that there is no interplay between the attackers, and also shows that their most consistent passing combination was central defender John Stones playing it back to Pickford.

In contrast, Spain is a work of art.

In terms of pressing, a difficult concept in tournament football, England were particularly passive, not helped by striker Kane’s limited mobility. But the pressure is also about organization and England’s approach was disjointed. In the final third, for all the big men, there were few signs of positive relationships between players – no two players who seemed to be on the same wavelength (with the exception of Bukayo Saka and Kyle Walker), no rotation, No one was moving the game forward to make room for others. And while England have spent long periods on the backfoot this tournament, it is also difficult to miss too many examples of them jumping into attack on the break, something all their attackers are capable of doing individually.

This was simply a side that depended on moments of magic – Bellingham’s bicycle-kick to force extra time against Slovakia, Saka’s late equalizer against Switzerland, Ollie Watkins’ late winner against the Netherlands and the final. Cole Palmer’s drilled equalizer. It’s also undeniable that various newcomers – Marc Guhi, Ezri Konsa, Kobi Manu – have stepped up and produced solid performances.

But all this only reflects the quality of the individual player. As a unit, England were average and were lucky to reach the final.

His biggest problem when he was fighting the final was his pressure.

From the first minute it seemed as if there was an intention to exert forceful pressure. From Spain’s first goal kick, England attempted to take the lead. But was there really a plan?

With six players – Spain’s four at the back and two central midfielders – to finish, England pressed with five, leaving right-back Dani Carvajal free. Spain clearly have the out-ball, so throw the ball to that side of the pitch.

England has many ways can Pressure has been created here with five players. For example, if Bellingham is blocking the passing lane on the right, or if England have moved laterally across the pitch with Saka moving forward to pick up a central midfielder, on the pass side, You could argue there was a plan.

But England looked disorganized because, by the time Carvajal got the ball, Luke Shaw was nervously looking over his shoulder, unsure whether he should jump forward and press. Carvajal has formal time to play the ball upfield…

…and the move ends with Alvaro Morata dropping deep to get the ball and trying to pass it to Lamine Yamal. Well, he would have been offside here anyway, but it was only a minute before Spain successfully beat England.

That was not a one-off. The situation is the same even after 10 minutes of the game. Spain is playing from behind. Shaw isn’t sure whether he should have jumped or not. Bellingham seems to be telling him he should do it.

Spain advanced the ball in that direction. Bellingham is going to be closed, but he is going to be a person. Shaw is miles away from Carvajal, so again an easy out-ball.

Carvajal has time to take a nice long pass…

…And if Nico Williams got his head on this ball, he would have tossed it to running back Fabian Ruiz.

These problems were never completely resolved.

In the second half, Spain changed shape from their starting 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1, but England had the same problems as they tried half-way to press in the middle third. Here, Bellingham is pointing towards Yamal, perhaps telling Shaw to take him, although it is impossible to know.

As the ball is played towards Shaw, we can see his outstretched arm gesturing madly – again, it’s not quite clear which organization is at play here.

But somehow, Shaw – who excelled in one-on-one situations – was stuck in the middle. He is not close enough to put pressure on Carvajal, but he also allows Yamal to score passes to him and the winger runs onto Carvajal’s clever out-of-foot pass around the corner.

Yamal dribbles inside and passes the ball to Williams…

…which concludes cleverly.

This sequence continued. Here, with Robin Le Normand taking the ball into midfield, Yamal has moved inside with Carvajal on the overlap. Bellingham is pointing towards something. Shaw is also like this. But none of them are in a position to really lock down any player.

Yamal gets the ball and plays it from behind…

…and Morata is given a good chance to make it 2-0.

Spain’s winner actually came from the other side.

And, in the final minutes of a long tournament, you could forgive England for not pressing with intensity here.

Still, the starting position of their attackers suggests they wanted to do this, but this pass from Aymeric Laporte to Ruiz is too simple. There is no pressure on any player.

And then on the far side, there was a familiar situation. Walker is unsure whether to pursue Dani Olmo inside, while Saka is unaware of Marc Cucurella’s run.

This opened the door to England. Walker is chasing the shadow here, the ball is moving around him. From this point, it is only worth appreciating the quality of the goal – Mikel Oyarzabal tied the game by sending the ball to Cucurella…

…Then many times he runs into the box to collect the return ball and score.

England were not completely embarrassed in the final. They successfully reached half-time without missing a clear chance. He returned to the game thanks to the use of the bench. They defended set pieces well and late on had a good chance to equalize again from a corner of their own.

But England played like underdogs – playing too many long balls and chasing targets individually rather than applying pressure as a proper unit.

It seems instructive that they lost in the second half to a team that was forced to compete without the player who was later voted best player of the tournament, Rodri.

Spain, collectively, were at a different level to England – last night and throughout the last month.