Lee Carsley suffered his first defeat during his role as interim manager of England with a 2-1 loss at Wembley to Greece in the Nations League.
Despite playing a whole collection of attacking options, the Three Lions were largely dismal and lacking cohesion in possession, and lacking bodies and structure out of it, leading to Greece having a succession of chances on the counter-attack.
Vangelis Pavlidis eventually found a route to goal after dribbling through the defence, only for Jude Bellingham to score a late equaliser for what looked like it would prevent Carsley suffering a first defeat – but another defensive mix-up saw Pavlidis rifle in the winner.
Here are the player ratings from Wembley.
Jordan Pickford, 3. Calamitous start as he gifted two would-be goals: dallying outside the box and losing the ball, then missing an attempted punch. The ball went in, but the flag was up – he was so fortunate. Beaten more definitively just after the restart, then again twice more with the offside flags again rescuing him. Still time for one more goal to fly past him for the winner.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, 5. Nothing like as inventive and involved as in the last international break from an attacking perspective and too lax defensively, including for Pavlidis’ goal. One good defensive tracking back run late on and a couple of decent balls into the box.
John Stones, 6. Made a great block to deflect a shot wide. Beaten far too easily for the opening goal however – one of several that applies to. Captain on the night, a reasonable showing without being anything approaching tremendous.
Levi Colwill, 7. Magnificent recovery to spare Pickford’s blushes, sprinting and stretching to make a goalline clearance. A good showing and recovery pace was needed more than once. Probably England’s best starter on the night.
Rico Lewis, 6. Very calm and generally solid for the most part – looks like the part whenever he’s playing. Quite possibly the now-and-future answer at left-back, but was involved in the mix-up at the end to gift another goal.
Declan Rice, 5. After the trouble of finding a partner for him at the Euros, Carlsey appeared to decide the best option was to…not have one. Spent a lot of time solo in the middle, swarmed and overloaded. Booked for a wild tackle. Bad game, but not really his fault as he was left so isolated for so long.
Cole Palmer, 6. Blazed over from ten yards when you’d expect him to score. A couple of times linked nicely or put in some good defensive work rate, but certianly not the type of impactful showing hoped for after a week of hype.
Phil Foden, 5. Like so many of his England appearances, some nice touches in isolation but basically a game where he failed to dictate the rhythm or tempo, be creative or be the main conduit. If the eventual decision is to drop one creative player, his Three Lions showings might make him the one.
Bukayo Saka, 5. Did a bit of running back and forth but very little involvement and marginalised as England tried to fit in extra creative outlets. Subbed off early in the second half with a bit of a limp.
Jude Bellingham, 6. Had a very early strike well-saved but thereafter was in and out of the game, essentially England’s centre-forward but did plenty of dropping deep and roving wide when he could. Wasted a lobbed chance, then hammered in a late equaliser.
Anthony Gordon, 5. Basically played the role of the only fixed position player in the final third, holding width and working hard. Didn’t achieve much with constantly trying to cut in and taken off when Carsley brought a striker on.
Subs: N Madueke 7, O Watkins 7, D Solanke 6
Greece: Vlachodimos 7, Rota 8, Mavropanos 7, Koulierakis 7, Giannoulis 7, Kourbelis 8, Siopis 7, Masouras 7, Bakasetas 6, Tzolis 8, Pavlidis 9.
