- 22 hours ago
Saka and Palmer incident sums up embarrassing England, says Roy Keane
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 11 Oct 2024 06:56 BST
- 4 min read
England slumped to a surprise 2-1 Nations League defeat against Greece on Thursday at Wembley, and in the aftermath of the game pundit Roy Keane picked out an incident involving Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer as typifying the Three Lions’ effort.
The home side were expected to add to their two victories in League B as they hosted Greece, yet despite Jude Bellingham scoring with three minutes remaining to level the game, a couple of goals from Vangelis Pavlidis settled the match in favour of the guests.
Although neither strike was something the English defence will look back on fondly, it was the first goal that really caught Keane’s eye as Greece were allowed to advance through the middle much too easily.
Compared
Arsenal's Saka and Chelsea's Palmer were both earmarked for their lack of aggressiveness defensively in the buildup to the visiting side getting the ball in the box, which the whole of the Three Lions’ defence came under fire once their opponents had advanced so far.
Speaking to ITV, Keane said: “I think it summed up England’s performance. They had the bodies back but no one is doing their job properly. They’re thinking: ‘Are you going to do it? Am I going to do it?’
“How can this happen? There are five or six England players around him. There’s five or six England players around him. My goodness! Somone’s got to put a tackle in!
“If that happened in training, you’d stop the session. You’d be asking the players: ‘Are you taking this seriously?’ Unbelievable goal to concede.”
🗣️ "Look at this! Five or six England players around him... My goodness - someone has got to put a tackle in!"
🗣️ "If that happened in training you'd stop the session!"
Roy Keane analyses Greece's opener ⚽️#ITVFootball | #NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/rQETtBNms4— ITV Football (@itvfootball) October 10, 2024
England need to do the basics
While it remains unclear who will be England’s next full-time manager – Lee Carsley did his case no favours with a strikerless approach at Wembley – Keane says that whoever takes command needs to get the players drilled with a better attitude.
“You got back to the basics,” Keane said. “Freedom is the new buzzword. You still have to do the basics properly: you need to defend properly and have that urgency. They get urgency when they go 1-0 down. And the basics of wanting to defend and having a little bit of pride weren’t there.”
England travel to Finland for their second clash, which is on Sunday.
