Roy Keane issued a scathing assessment of England’s disastrous performance against Greece, reserving particular criticism for goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
An experimental Three Lions side deservedly fell to a shock 2-1 loss in the Nations League at Wembley on Thursday night, with interim boss Lee Carsley’s selection gamble backfiring hugely on a dismal evening to surely put a massive dent in any hopes he had of becoming Gareth Southgate’s permanent managerial successor at senior level.
The Under-21 boss named a strongly attacking lineup for the game against the Group B2 leaders, with the returning Jude Bellingham operating as a false nine in the absence of injured captain Harry Kane and the rest of England’s best attacking players in Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon and Cole Palmer all crammed into a hopelessly unbalanced team that struggled to create chances and defended dreadfully throughout.
Stylish Greece - who paid tribute to the late George Baldock at Wembley - had the ball in the net five times in total on the night, with two counting as Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis scored shortly after half-time and then late in second-half stoppage time after Bellingham appeared to have spared England’s blushes with an equaliser.
It was England’s first-ever loss to Greece and first defeat in a competitive match at Wembley for the hosts for four years, with the likes of Keane and fellow ITV pundit Ian Wright pulling no punches in their assessment of a woeful display.
Keane was particularly critical of the performance of long-time No1 Pickford, commenting on Levi Colwill’s remarkable goal-line clearance in the first half: "What's he doing? Do it quickly. Brilliant defending, very unlucky by Greece but a lovely message for defenders - never give it up. He chased it and did brilliant. But not a good message from Pickford to send."
Assessing another clip, Wright said: “Here again, he looks all over the place. He gets caught in no man's land. It's very jittery, Pickford.
Keane, who has been critical of Pickford in the past for England and Everton, then added: "That will always be there with Pickford. He's not going to change now."
The ITV pundits were withering in their assessment of England’s defending for both Greece goals, with Keane saying of the first: “I think this sums up England’s performance. You’ve got the bodies, but no one actually doing their job properly. ‘Are you gonna do it, am I gonna do it?’ How can this happen?
“Five, six England players around him. Brilliant from the striker and a lovely finish, but my goodness someone’s got to put a tackle in. If that happened in training, you’d stop the session. You would, you’d stop the session and ask if they were taking it seriously. Unbelievable goal to concede.”
On England’s performance as a whole, Keane said: "We go back to the basics of the game. The words over the last month or two about England have been freedom and style and attacking players.
"Freedom is the new buzzword, obviously. It's the new garlic bread. But you still have to do the basics of football. You have to defend properly and urgency... England didn’t seem to have any.
“Why do they get urgency when they go 1-0 down? You see them taking set-pieces... and that was a big disappointment for England tonight as well.
“Over the last few years you’re thinking, their set-piece delivery and the way they were attacking the ball was so poor, and the basics in terms of wanting to defend, having a bit of pride.”
