Euro 2016: England V Slovakia, post match review

So England have managed to qualify for the next stage of Euro 2016, we once again didn't make it easy for ourselves but we have got through and that's the most important thing. I'm going to looking at how the Slovakia game went and what England need to do to improve for the next stage of the competition.

Slovakia, a rather dissapointing match in the end, we got a result we needed but despite dominating possession, failed to create any real openings or chances against a Slovakia side who showed no real intent. Martin skrtel could've defended English attacks by himself, in fact he near enough did. Hodgson sometimes need to concede before he makes correct substitutions as once again his substitutions were poor. Starting your captain on the bench is poor, then bringing him on in a position he is yet to play in in this tournament is wrong, testing new things in the middle of a major tournament is poor, we need the players to perform for Roy this tournament now to protect the England manager due to some of his poor decisions.

However, we did show in this game the ability to control a game, we maintained a certain element of control throughout which is good and it introduced a few players who are yet to feature in this tournament to the level of football needed to compete, incase they are needed later down the line. Which is good, although their was a real lack of urgency and desire tonight, England should be aiming to kill off every opponent and they didn't look to do so tonight.

looking ahead
Its vital we go forward now and as fans and players put our frustrations aside and concentrate on the next opponent, we are getting towards the business end of the tournament now where teams will begin to punish us for not taking chances. For me in the next fixture we must set up how we did in the second half against Wales, we need to try and create chances, playing too much football just inside the opposition half makes it very hard to create.

The problem we face is that opposition from now on aren't going to be sitting back on England letting us attack because they need to score to go through just as much as England do, so we need to create and take chances better so we don't get punished. This is rather advantageous however because it allows for a much more open game so more chances will be available if we play the right team to create them.

Overall England's performance against Slovakia  was particularly frustrating for fans as we were certainly the better team and should've produced more to win the game, but we did make it through. We must look forward now to the next game and go on and be positive to try and win that, be confident and create. Let's hope we can get through it to the next stage! Come on England !