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Five things for England
- Updated: October 11, 2016
England could only manage a goalless draw in Slovenia as they failed to win a competitive qualifier for the first time in more than three years.
Gareth Southgate’s side had Joe Hart to thank for their point, with the goalkeeper making a series of impressive saves to keep England level.
Here, we pick out five of the talking points to emerge from the game…
England still so frail
“I think mentality is big in football,” said new captain Jordan Henderson before the match. “Sometimes people think we are machines.” There could be no mistaking the human frailties on show in Ljubljana as England’s players – Henderson included – malfunctioned throughout. The mistakes were sloppy and the memories of Iceland remain raw.
Roy Hodgson endured that nasty night in Nice and even Sam Allardyce got a glimpse of the issues in his brief time in charge, noting the “nervous tension” that gripped his players against Slovakia. Now Southgate has seen first-hand that his best-laid schemes can go awry. It will take more than a 2-0 win over Malta to change that mentality.
Hart shows his class
Perhaps more players testing themselves abroad will help? There’s long been a notion that England’s best would benefit from stints on the continent, but a goalkeeper moving from Manchester City to Torino probably wasn’t top of the list. Five games in Serie A won’t have transformed Hart as a player but he was certainly the star man for his side on Tuesday.
The England No 1 had no right to keep a clean sheet. Twice he was exposed by bad back-passes – first by Eric Dier and then by Henderson – and twice he pulled off the save. His stops from consecutive corners were even more impressive, the second of which surely …
