Euro 2016: What went wrong for England against Iceland?

2. Defensive loopholes

Cahill and Smalling were rarely on the same page.

Iceland showed up to the tournament attracting no one’s attention. So when they qualified unbeaten for the knock-out rounds, people took notice. Surprisingly, their stats didn’t line up accordingly. They had the lowest number of shots and lowest pass completion rate of any of the teams alive in the tournament. With a mere 35% of possession in the first three games, their strategy was evident – sit tight, defend and break on the counter.

Before the run up to this tie, England coach Roy Hodgson had underlined Aron Gunnarsson’s long throws as a weapon and something England seemed to have worked on in training. So it was criminal for them to not just fail to defend the long throw, but also not attack it enough leaving room for a flick on to reach unmarked Icelandic defender Ragnar Sigurdsson. Heading into the tournament, Chris Smalling, and Gary Cahill were coming off of strong performances in the middle of an average season, for their respective clubs. To think of them as a stellar duo at the back would not be an overestimate. But when Iceland scored a Spain like tiki-taka goal, you have to question the defenders and look at their positioning. But full marks to Iceland for making England’s top defenders look like a bunch of sitting ducks. It’s not the first time in this tournament that the duo have been out of position or slow to react. If England needs to get past the horror of round of 16, it needs to strengthen the defensive line and the keeper. No amount of attacking options will help you if your defense is letting in soft goals from time to time.