Anthony Gordon was finally given a chance to play last night by Gareth Southgate in the 89th minute, following four and a half hours of tedious England performances at Euro 2024.
In Tuesday’s last group game against Slovenia, many had expected the Newcastle United winger to start. However, Southgate stuck with his plan and made substitutions too late, with Gordon’s five-minute cameo at the end of a scoreless tie being insulting and merely a symbolic gesture.
In a short period of time, Gordon produced one more chance (1) than Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, and Bukayo Saka combined (zero). This underscores how badly so many of our players played, but it also heightens the confusion surrounding Gordon, who made such a strong statement in a post-match interview from Germany.
The winger expressed his annoyance at his little playing time, asked us to “attack” opposition going forward, and shielded the fans’ boos at the end of the game. He felt that after yet another inept performance, we needed to be more bold and direct with the ball. Watch the amazing interview he did below:
Within minutes of walking onto the pitch, Gordon provides us breadth, a direct runner with pace and movement in behind, and he instantly contributed to our biggest opening of the match.
Phil Foden’s attempt by Southgate to deploy him as an inverted left winger has failed and did not look to be effective last night. Surely it’s time to start Declan Rice alongside Bellingham in a somewhat deeper role, Saka (or Palmer) down the right, Foden as a No. 10, Gordon down the left, and Kane up front?
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