England's World Cup campaign got off to a flying start with a ruthless 6-2 win over Iran, but their dreams of "bringing football home" took a bit of a reality check on Friday, after a goalless draw against the United States.
The 0-0 draw at the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar leaves every team in Group B with a chance to progress on the final day of group matches next Tuesday.
Though England will still be strong favourites to top the group after their final game against Wales, the stalemate on matchday two did little to impress the national media across the water.
England v USA: English media react to drab goalless draw
Writing in the Guardian, Jonathan Liew called England's performance the "blandest of displays", and bemoaned the lack of quality on show from a hotly anticipated World Cup clash.
He said, "it was only natural to wonder how we might all have been spending this time more productively. Perhaps when the end finally comes, when we are lying on our deathbeds preparing to gasp our final breath, we will think back to that night we spent watching John Stones and Harry Maguire mesmerically passing the ball to each other, and quietly mourn the passing of time."
Liew gave England credit for controlling the game, at least, where others such as Germany and Argentina have faltered, but said that the result was indicative of Gareth Southgate's approach. Though he noted that a similar result for England against Scotland in their second EURO 2020 game did not end too badly, he worried that this England side have lost their identity:
If you peered under the bonnet here (hood, for our American readers) it was possible to spot a slightly subtler process at work. It wasn’t just the loss of sporting momentum, the sparkle and awe of the Iran performance evaporating in the space of 90 translucent minutes.
On a wider level Southgate’s England feel like a team suddenly searching for its wider purpose, its identity, its reason for being. A lot of the air and the urgency seems to have gone out of this thing. How has it happened, and how can they get it back?
You can occasionally sense that ambivalence in England’s football. Do you go for the bold option, take the risk, invite contact, embrace the contest? Or do you simply pass the ball back to Stones and start the cycle again? Do you wear the armband and screw the consequences? Or do you step back from the brink, take your medicine, withdraw and regroup? Do you let Phil Foden loose or keep him on the bench for later?
Part of the reason England have been so inconsistent in recent months is because they seem unsure of the right answers, unsure that there even is a right answer.
Writing in the Independent, Lawrence Ostlere was even more critical of Gareth Southgate, calling his style of football "tortuous" and saying, "if Southgate took the handbrake off against Iran, he pulled it up again for the USA, then left the car in the garage, locked the door and dropped the keys in a canal."
The lack of impetus shown by England was a source of major frustration for their fans on Friday evening, and Ostlere noted that this may have been a direct result of England not needing a win at this stage to push them towards qualification, after their massive victory on the opening day. He said that, given Southgate's tendency to play a cautious game, such a performance was to be expected. He summed up the game by warning fans not to take too much from the opening win against Iran:
This match remains a far more realistic yardstick than Iran for where England are in this tournament, and perhaps a forewarning of what lies ahead. On this evidence it will not be an easy watch.
One of the key issues pointed at Gareth Southgate's management of England has been his inability to adapt within games, or make substitutions with a view to winning games, rather than simply seeing them out.
Jamie Carragher's column in the Telegraph had the simple hook - "Where the hell was Phil Foden?" - a question many viewers were asking as England cried out for some creativity late in the game.
The Manchester City man did not even get on the pitch in Al Khor, and Carragher could not understand Southgate's decision:
Speak to any football supporter watching the Premier League over the last three years and ask ‘who is the most naturally gifted English footballer today?’ and 80 per cent would say Foden. The other 20 per cent are not watching closely enough.
For Southgate to turn to his substitutes and opt for his City team-mate Jack Grealish ahead of him felt strange. Would Pep Guardiola look to Grealish before Foden if seeking a winning goal? Highly unlikely.
Carragher made links between Foden and former England man John Barnes' inability to perform in an England shirt and, though 'Carra' understood why Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling started the game, he still could not fathom the decision to leave Foden on the sidelines for the entire game.
England's closest neighbours Wales also faltered in the World Cup on Friday, though in far more dramatic fashion in the other Group B game, as they lost to Iran.
Many jokes were made at the expense of the Welsh for their grandiose statements about knocking out England - but, writing in the Times, Owen Slot believed that Wales would have been encouraged by the English performance against the USA.
England's tabloids had far more humourous takes on the game, with some of the headlines thrown out about the match brilliantly summing up the boredom of fans during the game.
The Mirror went with "YAWN IN THE USA", while the Daily Mail teed up Tuesday's England v Wales game with the headline "NOW FOR THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN!" Our personal favourite, however, comes from The i Sport.
The i Sport: Football 0 Soccer 0 #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/W52azq7MnD
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) November 25, 2022
England are not in trouble yet - but it's clear that if performances do not pick up, patience is wearing thin with Gareth Southgate.
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