Jonathan Harding: Southgate must allow Three Lions to throw caution to the wind

Racing Post writer Jonathan Harding fears football may not be coming home. Read on to find out why and new customers can also get 35-1 for England to qualify for the quarter-finals thanks to a great offer from Paddy Power. 

You can grab your free bets here  and we’ve included instructions on how to claim your offer later on in this article.

Are you sitting down? I have some difficult news to share with you. There is really no easy way to say this but there is a very real possibility football is not coming home.

That should come as no great surprise to anybody who managed to remain conscious for all three of England’s group games at the Euros. To say their displays have been uninspiring would be a leading contender for understatement of the year.

Every man and his dog has a view on why Gareth Southgate is struggling to get the best out of this exceptionally talented group – WhatsApp chats across the country must have been blowing up during England v Slovenia – but for most it boils down to the manager trying to play all the right players but not necessarily in the right order.

Having arrived with so much hope, it has been a bit like watching a group of ringers who have just met at a Sunday league game. Nobody is questioning the fact that Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Harry Kane and co are exceptional footballers. They have shown it time and time again at club level, but in this system they look a little lost.

The word balance has been bandied around a lot when it comes to England and clearly there has been a lack of it so far, particularly down their left side and in midfield. That has led to a lack of fluency in attack and when pressing, and there is certainly an argument for dropping one of the big names in favour of a better shape.

There are plenty of questions heading into the knockout stage. Should Bellingham be played deeper to allow Foden to start more centrally? Would Kobbie Mainoo provide a link between the midfield and attack? How about rolling the dice and starting Anthony Gordon to offer some width? At the moment, it is hard to know how they want to play.

It has led to much soul-searching but you would think from the reaction after the 0-0 draw with Slovenia, when some fans threw plastic pint glasses onto the pitch and booed Southgate and his team, that they were crashing out of the tournament. 

By some divine miracle, England have somehow not only topped their group but also ended up on the right side of the draw, avoiding Spain, Germany, Portugal and France, who like England have hardly set the world alight with only two goals in the group stage.

That to me represents a second chance after three disappointing performances, in which it felt like some incredibly creative players had the handbrake on in a system that offered defensive stability but very little in the way of incisive runs and passing.

It is easy to blame team selection but the failings have been as much down to mentality as anything else. Nobody is doubting the effort but the first thought of any good team is to get on the front foot and it has all felt a little too conservative.

We saw glimpses of a new approach against Slovenia, although not enough to get too excited about, but knockout football, taking on teams who have to play a bit more expansively, might give England’s forward-thinking stars more space to manoeuvre. 

If England are going to get knocked out – if football is not going to come home – then surely it is better to take a few chances and go out swinging than to adopt a cautious approach that restricts creativity. 

The golden generation has a golden opportunity on the easier side of the draw and my only hope is they are allowed to go and seize it.

Grab 35-1 for England to qualify with Paddy Power when you bet on England vs Slovakia

We’ve already mentioned that Paddy Power are offering 35-1 for England to qualify from their clash with Slovakia.

Here is how you can claim this 35-1 Paddy Power offer when you place a qualifying bet England vs Slovakia at Euro 2024.

• Head over to Paddy Power through this link to sign up using promo code YFBCXD.
• Deposit a minimum of £10 by Cards or Apple Pay.
• Place a max £1 bet on the To Qualify for the Next Round market for England on Sunday, June 30. 
• If your bet is successful, you will be paid in cash based on the normal price on site and will have the extra amount, bringing the bet up to the cumulative 35-1 payout, credited in free bets.
• You will receive your Free bet after your qualifying bet settles. Free bets are valid for 7 days.

Paddy Power betting sign-up offer: terms and conditions

It's worth taking a few minutes to read through the terms and conditions associated with the new player promotion before signing up. Doing so will help you get a better grasp of the details of this Paddy Power betting offer and what's expected of you as a new player. This promotion gives you £50 in free bet builders. T&Cs apply, including the following:

• New customers only. Available to residents of UK or Republic of Ireland.
• Best odds guaranteed does not apply to bets placed with a free bet, or partial free bet.
• You can use part of your free bets and save the rest for later as long as you use it before they expire. 
• Stakes are not returned with winnings if your free bet wins. 
• Your winnings will be credited to your main wallet.
• If we find that you have taken part in this promotion using a duplicate account or that you have used more than one account to participate, we reserve the right to withhold your free bets and any winnings earned on the duplicate account.
• Deposits made with e-wallets including: Skrill, Paysafe, PayPal and Neteller will not count towards this promotion - Apple Pay is acceptable. 
• The offer excludes the following bet types: Canadian, Goliath, Heinz, Lucky 15, Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Patent, Super Heinz, Trixie & Yankee.
• Cashed out or partially cashed out bets do not qualify.
• Paddy Power reserves the right in its discretion to exclude and/or limit the availability of the offer to certain customers.
• The full terms and conditions of Paddypower.com also apply to this offer

• Cashed Out, Partially Cashed Out and Power Price bets will not count towards the promotion. If you place a qualifying bet and subsequently use Cash Out on the bet, you will no longer be eligible for the promotion.  

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.