Roy Keane has singled out one England star who let the side down in the 2-1 defeat by Greece at Wembley – and torn apart the Three Lions for an apathetic and prideless performance in his eyes.
Greece were good value for their win on Thursday night and had the ball in England’s net on five occasions, though three of their goals were ruled out.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored both goals – including a 94th minute winner – to dampen the intrigue infused by a creative and attacking set-up laid on by Lee Carsley.
All Keane saw was a soft belly for Greece’s goals – and he had a bone to pick with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, whose carelessness on the ball left fans worried.
‘That spreads a message throughout the team – the lack of concentration levels, the lack of urgency,’ said Keane of Pickford’s first-half performance.
Roy Keane has skewered England for their performance in the 2-1 loss to Greece at Wembley
He singled out Jordan Pickford as the man whose carelessness set the tone for the rest
Lee Carsley’s side were humbled – this was their worst competitive defeat in terms of ranking side 2005
‘What’s he doing? Do it quickly – not a good message from Pickford to send,’ he said, afetr Pickford lost possession far from home and needed Levi Colwill to bail him out.
Keane then went on to pull apart England’s defence for a supposed lack of desire. Pavlidis was able to keep the ball from several players in England’s area without a robust challenge before his first goal in the 49th minute.
‘How can this happen? Five or six England players around him, brilliant from the striker, lovely finish, but my goodness someone’s got to put a tackle in,’ said Keane.
‘If that happened in training you’d stop the session and say, “are you taking this seriously?”
‘The words over the last two months with England – freedom and style and attacking players, freedom is the new buzz word, the new garlic bread!
‘But you still have to do the basics of football. I go back to it in terms of defending properly, and urgency, England didn’t seem that urgent.
‘Why do England only have urgency when they’re 1-0 down?
Vangelis Pavlidis netted twice, with the second goal coming deep into stoppage time
Jude Bellingham thought he’d spared his side a point, only for them to concede moments later
‘That was disappointing for England tonight. 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.’
More to follow.