With the 2023/24 season nearly over, it allows fans to prepare for another intense summer of football as Euro 2024 fast approaches. But with that, it also means England fans are back again with their same old chant, hoping that this time it will surely be their year. It nearly happened at the 2022 World Cup again nearly at the Euro 2020 and nearly at the 2018 World Cup. It’s surely got to be their year, right?
And as pre-tournament squad announcements go, Gareth Southgate has finally picked up the axe and given the Three Lions squad a nice chop down to a 33-man squad. That will be sliced and diced even further to a 26-man squad before the 8th of June, in time for the tournament’s first game on the 14th of June.
Even then, given the youthful and fresh look this team has, it has many wondering yet again: can England win Euro 2024?
1. That forward line is a thing of beauty
Harry Kane: 44 goals, 12 assists, Bukayo Saka: 20 goals, 14 assists, Phil Foden: 27 goals, 11 assists, Cole Palmer: 27 goals, 15 assists, Jude Bellingham: 22 goals, 12 assists; and Ollie Watkins: 27 goals, 13 assists. Only three, maybe four will start depending on the system but given the forwards Gareth Southgate has picked for himself, only bad tactics will let England down in front of the net.
Simply because these are players who can score goals and score them consistently and prolifically. Plus, there’s an added bonus of them being creators in their own right, which means all Southgate has to do is basically name his front-line, eight defenders, and let the forwards do as they wish. It might work, who knows?
2. Their group may not be the toughest in the land
Unlike most tournaments, Euro 2024 doesn’t have a group of death, it has two. Group B has Spain, Croatia, Italy, and Albania, making many feel sorry for Albania, while Group D has Poland, Netherlands, Austria, and France. England sits in Group C, right between those two groups, and they have Denmark, Slovenia, and Serbia in their group, which isn’t the toughest fight in the land.
All three sides have the squads and players to cause problems for the Three Lions but the quality within this exuberant team should be enough to overcome them without a major issue. That’s if everything proceeds normally and there isn’t a dark horse, but there will be, and England just needs to hope that they aren’t in their group.
3. There’s something we don’t know about the Three Lions
Nobody can put their finger on it but there is a certain “je ne sais quoi” around England going into Euro 2024 and many believe that this may be the squad to end the drought. There is a youthful and fresh look to the team with a few of the old guard left to strengthen the pillars. But with Adam Wharton, Eberechi Eze, Anthony Gordon, Kobbie Mainoo, and a few others, England have what many call a few jokers in their hands.
Don’t get it wrong, this is far from the perfect squad because that defense will be papered over by an overworked Declan Rice and Jordan Pickford, which just might work. Why? Because over the years, England have improved. They reached a semi-final in 2018, a final at Euro 2020 and lost to eventual finalists France in a tightly fought battle in the quarter-finals in 2022.
They’re growing, they’re getting themselves over the line, and they’re even getting smarter and a lot more cunning, even if they lack a few pieces here and there. Have they found it? Only time will tell.
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