After a blistering start to life in the 2024 European Championship, the high rate of stunning goals and brilliant games has slowed down considerably almost to a dull halt. For a couple of seconds, the 2024 Euros looked to be on pace to outshine the 2023 AFCON that was beyond spectacular.
Brilliant goals from Arda Guler, Nicolo Barella and Lukas Provod gave way to boring drawn games but a handful of Round of 16 stage games did well to prop up the excitement in the competition with a couple of nail biting extra time games doing the trick.
One of those games had the most scrutinized team on earth, England’s Three Lions, come back from the brink of death to score a remarkable comeback win over Slovakia.
Scorer of the all-important equalizer that forced the game into extra time, Jude Bellingham, delivered an absolute box office of a tabloid headline by mouthing “Who else” when celebrating his stoppage time goal.
The message in Bellingham’s second goal celebration was practically the same as his first that aimed a serious dig at critics who have delivered brutal assessments of the team’s performance in Germany.
As has been omnipresent in the modern era of football, Bellingham still had something left for millions of followers online by dropping lines from the very popular portion of former American President Theodore Roosevelt’s Citizen in a Republic speech delivered in France in 1910.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming” a portion of the famous “The Man in the Arena” quote got blasted on Bellingham’s Instagram page and letting the world know once again the tense relationship between Gareth Southgate’s men and the media.
Heading into the quarterfinals, the personnel of the eight qualified teams represent some if not all the elements of Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” with their contributions. Even in the face of progress to get this far in the tournament, some “Men in the Arena” need to be dropped to give their nations the best chance to win and progress further in the tournament.
This list rightly so is headed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who is arguably the Greatest Player of All Time but is hands down the Greatest of All Time in public image management considering how his management team has pushed the selfless narrative about the Portuguese striker so well and his sudden urge to retire immediately after he almost single handedly kicked Portugal out of the tournament.
Expanding on the issue highlighted above, Ronaldo’s quest to end his goal drought in the competition has made him more of a liability than an asset Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez has touted for years.
It is clear Ronaldo’s speed has sapped sharply and the limited burst of energy is channeled into jumps to meet crosses that make up for his lack of speed.
He roasted those dribbling skills highlighted by the quick step overs he made famous during his Man United stint for goals so he can’t rely on that anymore and his restricted movement makes him an easier target for defenders to mark compared to young wing forwards who move fluidly into wide areas in opponents areas that defenders dread.
If Ronaldo isn’t scoring, he isn’t helping the team since he doesn’t defend from the top and since he isn’t scoring, it is time for Martinez to start younger guys like Diogo Jota, Goncalo Ramos or Joao Felix who are quality players and address these malaises on Ronaldo’s part. Martinez got a scare against Slovenia and should ring in the big change.
Phil Foden
It is high time people accept Southgate’s Three Lions as they and not as people imagine they should be because for starters, a team is a reflection of its head coach and Southgate is quite risk adverse who has somehow produced some of England’s best stretch in international tournaments.
While this is true, Southgate needs to take the floundering Foden out of his misery and get him some rest and time out of the spotlight to help him gain confidence.
By helping Foden, Southgate would be inadvertently helping himself by getting his team to play better with a right footed natural winger playing Foden’s position on the right since Bellingham is fully locked in the hole behind Harry Kane.
While Southgate has his critics, some of the players need to be responsible with their production because seeing the best player in the EPL fail to have enough to stay onside to score off Kieran Trippier’s pass is certainly a hard watch.
Foden needs to be dropped to the bench for Anthony Gordon to start and there is no shame in that. Julian Nagelsmann, after all, made the Budesliga’s best player, Florian Wirtz, come off the bench in Germany’s win over Denmark. Like Martinez, Southgate has been warned and needs to act.
Ousmane Dembele
It is fitting that France take on Portugal in the quarterfinals with a semifinal spot at stake. While both nations went into the competition as some of the best stacked teams with talents and solid favourites to win the title, none has met expectations with the French scoring once in open play through four games. Part of this is down to France’s poor conversion rate that had them squander so many chances against Poland and the best chances against the Netherlands.
Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann’s have had their struggles but none of these guys have been wasteful and quite frustrating as Ousmane Dembele. The former Barcelona FC player continues to be all sizzle no sauce, a player always showing tantalizing skills but not showing enough to be seriously considered a world class winger.
Dembele’s crosses have been poor and his dribbling attempts haven’t been successful either. It is telling Mbappe got France’s winning strike via an own goal against Austria when the Real Madrid forward moved to Dembele’s right wing spot.
Three games in, Dembele’s highlight moment in this year’s Euros is a sprint that won France a penalty against Poland. Didier Deschamps did well by making Dembele an unused substitute in the Round of 16 win over Belgium and that move should persist as long as France remain in the competition.
