Gareth Southgate's England issues laid bare by alarming stat from Serbia victory
England manager Gareth Southgate finds himself under immense pressure to make the most of all the attacking talents available to him, and frustration from fans has only grown after the Three Lions' ugly 1-0 win over Serbia on Sunday.
With a front four of Harry Kane, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka - four of the most-valuable assets in world football - England could only score once against Serbia and instead spent a large part of the game hanging on in defence.
By the time the final whistle arrived, the game had seen just 11 shots on goal. Not since records began in 1980 has a match at the European Championships seen such little action in front of goal.
Even more alarmingly, England were only responsible for five of those shots, three of which arrived in the first 30 minutes.
Many fans have criticised Southgate's approach, while Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag also used his appearance as a pundit for the game to question England's setup.
Foden failed to impress | Richard Pelham/GettyImages
A large part of the criticism has revolved around the output of Foden, who was named the Premier League Player of the Season last year as his return of 19 goals and eight assists fired Manchester City to another league title.
However, former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas suggested Foden should take more responsibility for his performances, rather than allowing Southgate's tactics to be criticised.
"The way we see Jude [Bellingham] getting the ball, imposing himself, he [Foden] owes us this class," Fabregas told BBC. "He needs to do that himself.
"A player of this class, this level and this talent doesn't even need to be told by the coach what to do.
"He needs to want it more than the rest and today it showed that Jude is a little bit above him in this regard and he needs to get this personality back."
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This article was originally published on www.90min.com as Gareth Southgate's England issues laid bare by alarming stat from Serbia victory.