England progressed to the last 16 as Group C winners on Tuesday night, but it was an ugly watch once again from Gareth Southgate's men.
Southgate's side laboured past Serbia in their opening game, before being held to a similarly dreary draw by Denmark on Thursday. They were once again poor against Slovenia in Cologne on Tuesday but five points was enough to secure top spot.
Amazingly, the way the draw has fallen now means that an easy path through the knockouts has once again opened up for England, who are unlikely to face any of the big-hitters until the final.
But doubts will continue to pervade about Gareth Southgate's management after another largely lifeless display from his attack against Slovenia.
Inquests into the place of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane in the team have swirled in the English press in recent days - but Didi Hamann zeroed in on two different figures post-match on Tuesday night.
Appearing on RTÉ's coverage of the 0-0 draw, Hamann shared his belief that Southgate's players have lost faith in him, and pointed to his unwillingness to drop either Jude Bellingham or Phil Foden as a key example of his poor decision making.
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Didi Hamann rips into Gareth Southgate after dour England draw
England were admittedly somewhat improved on Tuesday night but to say this match marked a turning point would be objectively false.
They should have beaten a team of Slovenia's standing comfortably rather than being held to a stalemate and, unlike some other pundits, Didi Hamann was unwilling to focus on any perceived positives from their performance.
Didi Hamann argues there is a case to drop Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden as Gareth Southgate's England look lost and don't resemble a team. pic.twitter.com/JlBMnidKSn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 25, 2024
Hamann absolutely slated Southgate in a post-match rant, saying that his stubborn loyalty to the "big boys" would ultimately cost him.
The 2002 World Cup finalist zeroed in on his stubbornness in playing both Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham despite their obvious incompatibility and said that Southgate's management of the team was bound to lose the respect of the playing squad.
There's a fine line between being loyal and being stubborn. In the past he's been, I think, too loyal to certain players.
If you look at Kane...or Declan Rice, is he the player who's making the team better? Is he making other players better? I'm not so sure.
As a manager, if you want to get the respect of the whole squad, you've got to get after the big boys. If you go after the small boys, people won't respect you.
He's in a position now where the public lost faith in him, the pundits lost faith in him in England, and the team, I think, lost faith in him as well.
Some of the substitutions, you can't follow it, you don't know what he's thinking.
I think the biggest problem is they've got Foden and Bellingham in the same team. It clearly doesn't work but he doesn't have the bottle to drop either of them. I think he's got to take one of them out or move Bellingham a bit further back but he doesn't want to do that.
For some reason, he thinks Bellingham has to play in the position behind Kane. They've got so many players.
If you stick to those big players and they clearly don't perform - I think there's a case to drop both of them. Unless he does it, I think it becomes a problem with the squad as well.
It's probably too late now but if you go after the lesser players, it doesn't look good on the manager. That's what he's done in the tournament, taking the easy target.
Very strong stuff from Hamann, and it's hard to argue.
While you could make an argument that both Foden and Bellingham have fully earned their place in the team based on their stellar performances at club level, it is clear that the two playing together is not working for England.
It has been proven time and time again over the past few years that Gareth Southgate is unable to make the crunch calls at crucial points of a tournament, and it appears unlikely he will do so at this stage.
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