The Lowe-Down

With the group stage over, I caught up with the pundits to get their thoughts on England ahead of the last sixteen clash with Slovakia. What have been thoughts on England so far? Alex: Dull, uninspiring and lethargic. England’s Euro campaign has not been on easy watch thus far. The lack of balance in the side and signs that Southgate doesn’t know how to use the attacking players at his disposal have created a huge amount of talk over selection, tactics and the manager himself. Personally, I feel a few minor tweaks can turn our fortunes. Josh: Underwhelming. Anyone you ask will give you the same answer. That said, it’s never straightforward to top the group as the French kindly demonstrated for us. So in that sense, job done. The rose-tinted spectacles say “there’s a lot more to come”, the pessimistic side of me says “we’ve been here before”. A grim knockout stage loss beckons, or we’ll kick on and go the distance with a favourable side of the draw, there’s no in between Lowe-

Euros Euphoria Part 2 – Is it coming home? And as promised, the blog where we give our predictions on the winner of Euro 2024. Part 2 is dedicated to England. What can we expect from the three lions this summer, what would we do if we were Gareth, and is it coming home? YOUR ENGLAND STARTING XI: Alex:                 Pickford   Walker Stones Guehi Shaw            Rice Bellingham           Saka Foden Palmer                      Kane The team I’ve selected is pretty offensive, as I feel that we need to utilise our attacking strengths. Foden was outstanding for City in a more central position, so I would have him as a 10 with Bellingham slightly deeper. This then allows the inclusion of Palmer, who I would grant a free role to. He consistently showed his ability to drift around the pitch for Chelsea and pop up in different areas where he assisted and scored from. The prospect of these attacking players linking up confirms my thinking that we should set up more offensively than previous to

  Euros Euphoria And just like that, Euro 2024 is upon us. Can you believe it was three whole years ago we had our hearts broken at Wembley? This summer’s edition is, of course, being held in one of Europe’s finest footballing countries, Germany. With a whole host of countries having a genuine claim to being crowned Europe’s finest, where on earth do we start with any predictions? Luckily, I’ve enlisted the help of some footballing experts, the Lowe-Down pundits. Our first pundit needs no introduction if you read his very successful blog on Nottingham Forest’s struggles earlier this season. I caught up with Alex Jeffery to get his opinions on this summer’s football. The second pundit is a student of the game and dare I say it, even more obsessed with the beautiful game than I am. Welcome to the Lowe-Down blog, Josh Spencer. Such is Josh’s dedication to football he is currently in Japan on a scouting mission to recruit some soccer players to join his College in America where he is