England may as well go for broke at Euro 2016, Wales and Northern Ireland are looking to add squad depth, France have almost too many options, and Nigeria got the Africa Cup of Nations exit they deserved
1) Defensively frail England should go for broke
Argue about the Danny Rose handball and the charge on Phil Jagielka all you like, but you’ll be dancing on the head of a pin. Bottom line, this England defence just isn’t very good at defending. Jagielka paid the ultimate price for world-class passive faffing; Rose was caught out of position on more occasions than he’ll care to recall; and John Stones’ Beckenbauer tribute act needs a couple more years in the workshop (sometimes, you just have to put your foot through it). This needn’t matter though. Rose, Stones and Kyle Walker are all impressive contributors to an England attack able to ping the ball around in a very aesthetically pleasing manner. So the solution is obvious. Pile forward! There’s absolutely no wayEngland can win Euro 2016 by trying to keep it tight; attempting to outscore everyone else is surely the only possible option. Turn a shambles into a plus point. If you’re going to fail, it might as well be fun. And if you think that sort of carry-on would be exciting now, just wait until Brendan takes over from Roy!
2) France’s Deschamps is spoilt for choice going forward
The generation of young French attackers Didier Deschamps has at his disposal is so extraordinary, a handful of very talented forwards are going to have to watch the European Championship on television. The France manager, who has integrated Anthony Martial into the team since the youngster joined Manchester United, suddenly had some seriously delicious food for thought when 19-year-old Kingsley Coman came on as Martial’s second half replacement. The Bayern Munich attacker made Russia’s defence look foolish. Audacity was an understatement, and the mix of direct running with a dash of panache left a big impression. He had a sort of assist with the run that earned Dimitri Payet his free kick, then scored a scorcher of a goal himself. Deschamps also has an assortment of promising youthful attackers to consider who were not even in this squad - new sensation Ousmane Dembélé of Rennes and his clubmade Paul-Georges Ntep, plus the Lyon pair of Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette who are returning to form and fitness. France expects some of these fresh faces to dazzle in the summer. The only question is which ones
3) Conte struggles to find positives in loss to Germany
Italy were completely overrun by Germany in Munich, Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 formation having no answer to Joachim Löw’s experimental set-up with three at the back and two attacking full-backs in Jonas Hector and Sebastian Rudy. True, Conte had made five changes to the side that impressed in the 1-1 draw against Spain last Thursday and gave full debuts to Francesco Acerbi and Federico Bernardeschi, but it did not work. The former Sunderland player Emanuele Giaccherini struggled on the left of midfield while Simone Zaza had very, very little to work with up front. “It is good to have important games [against top nations] to make an evaluation of where we are,” said Conte. “Losing is never fun but playing Spain and Germany means we have played the best and therefore understood the distance to the top teams. There is a gap to bridge to some teams and we know that.” To make matters worse, Leonardo Bonucci was carried off on a stretcher and could be out for some time. It was better news for Germany and Löw after Saturday’s defeat against England. Toni Kroos, Mario Götze, Hector and Mesut Özil scored the goals in Germany’s 4-1 win before a late reply by Stephan El Shaarawy. Götze will be particularly pleased to have started – and scored – but he was still criticised on the night by the former Bayern Munich midfielder Mehmet Scholl, who said the 23-year-old must train “much, much more. He used to be an arrow, so quick...”
4) Suárez’s Uruguay return tastes sweet
If Luis Suárez felt that the reaction to his bite on Giorgio Chiellini was over the top, he may now reflect that redemption tastes sweet. In the 20 months since Fifa banned the Uruguayan for sinking his teeth into Chiellini, the world governing body has been exposed as a hive of scum and villainy while Suárez has confirmed that he is the best striker on the planet. And, on Saturday, he finally returned to the international stage and, naturally, scored for his country. Uruguay’s 2-2 draw in Brazil was a highly creditable result bearing in mind that the hosts produced their best attacking performance for a while and the visitors were deprived of their first-choice centre-backs, the superb Atlético Madrid pairing of Diego Godín and José Giménez. Suárez, mind you, should probably have scored more than once, as he also missed a couple of good chances, and the goal of the game was scored by Renato Augusto, who flummoxed the opposing keeper with a magnificently cool dummy, before smashing the ball into the roof of the net.
5) Washington’s first strike timely for Northern Ireland
Conor Washington’s first international goal was one to savour for a former postman and St Ives Town striker. “It’s one of the highlights of my career,” said the Queens Park Rangers forward. “A fairytale.” For Michael O’Neill, however, its value lay beyond victory over Slovenia on Monday, or securing the longest unbeaten run in Northern Ireland’s history. Tournament football tests the resources of the strongest nations and Northern Ireland, for all their superb organisation, team spirit and the momentum of a 10-game unbeaten record, will be stretched on that score at the European Championships. The loss of Chris Brunt to a cruciate knee ligament injury and Kyle Lafferty’s inactivity at Norwich City – something O’Neill desperately needs him to rectify while on loan at Birmingham City – represent major headaches.
Washington’s emergence and impact in only his second international appearance, therefore, plus his understanding alongside the impressive Jamie Ward at Windsor Park, assumes added importance with France approaching. Not that O’Neill accepts the argument that Northern Ireland’s qualification for Euro 2016was all about Lafferty’s finishing. The manager said: “Kyle scored seven hugely important goals in qualification. Would we have been there without him? It is debatable whether we would have been. But we scored 18 goals overall so we found 11 goals from somewhere else. This team has proven that, at the big moments, we’ve had players who have stepped up – Gareth [McAuley], Josh [Magennis] and now Conor, a player we believe can affect games at key moments for us. We’re also getting competition for places. Maybe in the past we’ve been too reliant on too few key players. As our key players grow, equally we’ll be stronger for that.”
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