Another tournament, another weak display from England. Another poor finish in the group meaning potentially a tougher run in the knockouts. Yet again we failed to complete a task which, on paper, should have been relatively simple. We weren't in the group of death and yet we still managed to make a mess of it.

Supposedly dominating games is not enough; you have to score. For a much vaunted strike force it is blunt with no end product, no creation and no spark. Maybe we picked the wrong players. Maybe it's the wrong formation. Maybe it's the wrong approach.

Either way finishing second in that group is, with no offence to the other teams, simply not good enough.

For all we "dominated" tonight, we created very little in the way of goal scoring opportunities. Simply not good enough. Roy's selection gamble backfired massively. Finishing 2nd isn't as damaging as it used to be in the old format but it could still prove costly. So disappointing from England yet again.

Lack of pace and width is an issue - only the full backs caused issues with both whilst Vardy's pace wasn't used enough.

I don't think we should have started with both Sturridge and Vardy. One of them should have come on for Kane midway through the second half to stretch a tiring defence. I was nervy about that when people started to say we should start both; it means we had no competent pace on the bench.

For the first time in long time, I have enjoyed watching an England team at a tournament.
Enjoyed seeing young players want the ball, prepared to try and do something with it and being positive in every game.
The ball has not run for us and some players are not playing well, yet we were easily the best team in this group, regardless of us finishing second.
My one worry is we looked very leggy as the second half went on.

However, this is a new team in the making. The real time to judge them will be the next world cup.
I can only see very encouraging signs for the future.
England fans have showed their anger and dissapointnent in previous tournaments, but this time you can see they are! 100% behind these lads and giving them fantastic support.
I'm not a 'little Englander" but this support is truly wonderful and heartwarming to see, as is so much of the support in this tournament.

The big worry for me is the total lack of shots on target whether blocked or saved, its no good having possesion and attempts if they're not at least on target and giving the opposition goalie something to do.

And at the last World Cup we were saying the time to judge them would be at the Euros... the Euros are here and quite a few players (Walcott, Sterling, to an extent Townsend) haven't come through. Alli and Kane, for example, have hardly lit up the tournament this time around and I have no faith that they're going to develop in England colours based on their performances so far, even if they turn into world class players for their clubs.

The same issues lie with England - slow, ponderous, clueless when we get into the attacking third. This happened with the 'Golden Generation' and it's happening now. Is it the tactics or the approach rather than the players? But for manager after manager to encounter the same problem can tactics really be blamed? Other than 2008, the recent approach seems to be qualify relatively easily for a tournament then disappoint when it actually comes around.

Yes, if you don't test the keeper you will not score many.

We just seemed liked robots out there, so slow and ponderous, no-one was willing to try anything to beat a man, or do anything to cause their defence to move out of their defensive shape.

It was all so easy for them.

Just to be contrary - it's the best I've seen England play in a major tournament since about 1998-2002 in terms of the balance of their midfield and how they look as a team. I don't think they'll win it (although anything is possible) as I think France, Spain and Germany all have better chances for different reasons but outside of that England have as good a chance as any others. Of course that won't be good enough for some who think every time England take the field they should play like the best team in the world and win 5-0 despite the fact their average result at major tournaments is far below some other countries in modern football but since when have partisan fans ever been balanced?

They are decent. Better than in recent tournaments. If I was a fan I'd be quietly pleased so far. Rooney playing well. Defence not ripped apart yet. Fullbacks getting forward plenty with that extra defensive player in midfield to cover. Seems a lot better than some previous tournaments like South Africa for one. I still think he's got one striker too many and one (possibly two) too many central midfielders in his squad which would have been better filled with another winger or two and another CB in case of injuries and suspensions but, as far as performance goes, I've seen a lot worse from England.

From what I saw of it I couldn't believe the set pieces.

I've seen better deliveries at step 6/7 and in the women's regional league.

And these guys are supposed to be international class?!!

I fear that England's failure to score will be their downfall.

As with all tournament football, it's how you finish rather than how you start. The main objective is to qualify for the knock out phase. Obviously it would have been nice to go through as group winners but there's no guarantee you will get an 'easier' team if you do. Wales could be knocked out on Saturday and we could be in the q/f come next Monday. The tournament starts proper now in a way. There is no stand out team for me. It's really about which team will take their chances and maybe have a little luck too. We really do need to start converting these chances though.

For me Spain have been the stand out team, and Inestia the best player so far of the whole tournament.

I don't think there's any argument that England played well. But playing well, dominance, possession, etc. don't mean a thing if you don't put the ball in the net. How many strikes did a dominant England have, and how many on target? Very few I would suspect.

We had by far the best squad of players in our group, and motivation and effort was not an issue. The manager though isn't getting enough out of what he has at his disposal.

Walcott, Sterling and Townsend are not good enough and should be ditched.
Kane and Ali's form has fallen off a cliff since the Spurs game at Chelsea. They look shot but have the required talent for the future.

Looking back at past failures is pointless. Let's just give these lads some time, patience and support.
If we flop in 2 years time, then that will be the time to call for changes.

29 shots on goal, the most in a Euro game since 1980 apparently.

Only 5 on target though

Really? I find it surprising that we had that many.


Sadly I don't find that surprising. And none mattered. Credit to Slovakia to a point but, if the England team have any sort of ambition, then they've got to start scoring.

Unfotunately I cannot see where goals are going to come from and, with all due respect to the opposition, if we cannot score against Slovakia then what is going to happen when we come up against supposedly better quality opposition?

Whilst I can see where you're coming from Hodgson isn't the only manager with a lot of experience to take on England and run into the issue. Eriksson and Capello went through this as well. How many managers do we go through before we start wondering whether the problem runs deeper?


Walcott, Sterling and Townsend were big white hopes two years ago, like Kane and Alli are now. Going by Kane and Alli's performances in this tournament I have to wonder whether the 2014 generation were 'ahead' at this stage.

Even with young players we should have topped the group. Even with young players we should have created more and scored more than we did. We weren't pur of our depth or on the back foot at any time and yet we still failed to finish first. That should be a real concern.

Hodgson was not worried about finishing 2nd and that is clear I only hope it does not come back to haunt him. The team knew they were through and thats probably why there was no sense of urgency nowhere. I think we dominated play because of Sturridge and Vardy's movement, when they were both on we actually looked like scoring, Alli when he came on proved he can be of use, with his late runs "Poyet style" but his passing needs much work..I am a Liverpool fan so I will not knock hendo, he played well tonight probably one of his best performances all season.

What do we need? Straight away you could tell both teams would settle for a draw and such is the case in theese tournaments. You cannot really judge this game as it was obvious neither was going out all gund blazing, if Roy was that concerned about finishing second, he would have brought on Rashford in the second half. Again I hope it does not come back to haunt us because there are some deadly teams who can finish 3rd.

England need to stop taking it so seriously. Look at the teams who are good - players' heads are up, they're smiling, one or two little bits of flair, confident approach.

All England do is scowl.

Agree with this. The hysteria on here before, during and after every England game is quite ridiculous. They're a decent side with a good amount of young players that will only get better as they mature. I think they could just do with a but more width and penetration in the squad and perhaps a more attack minded manager for the future.

Vardy was starved of service. A couple of times he had runs on. Leicester would have released him straight away. Instead we just go square, and "build".

It's the managers fault.
Hodgson is the Stuart Lancaster of British Football, when we need the Eddie Jones.

with regard to Kyle Walker.
Nothing against Kyle but when a full back is your MVP there is something wrong.

With top teams that win things, the MVP is never a defender.

I think England could easily have gone out. After the opening game I said I thought they might lose to Wales, draw with Slovakia, and go out. They may easily have gone out without Sturridge's last gasp winner.

One of England's biggest weakness is creating and taking chances that result in a goal.

They have no chance in hell of winning anything.

Teams that start well very rarely go on to win the tournament. The winners tend to start slow and build up to it.

After about an hour I knew we wouldn't score, you could see it was going to be one of those nights. This is England in tournament football though, they find it incredibly hard to score goals, just 3 goals in the group. Ironically this is probably the best I've seen England play in a tournament for a long time, apart from the first half against Wales, dominating all three group games. But, again, the lack of goals meant we only won one of those games and as we go into the knockout stages we have problems if we can't score goals.