‘Alarm bells will be ringing’ – Stuart Pearce warns of England’s ‘Achilles heel’ ahead of Euro 2024
Stuart Pearce believes there should be 'alarm bells' ringing after England's lacklustre displays against Malta and North Macedonia.
The Three Lions ended their Euro 2024 qualification campaign with a disappointing 1-1 draw in Skopje, in which Gareth Southgate's men created little.
England were trailing 1-0 at half time after debutant Rico Lewis was harshly adjudged to have fouled Bojan Miovski in the box. Jordan Pickford saved Enis Bardhi's spot kick, but the taker was there to slam home the rebound.
The Three Lions levelled in the second half when substitute Harry Kane caused chaos in the box, but it was Jani Atansov who stuck the ball past his own goalkeeper.
England pushed for a winner but never looked like breaking the hosts down and managed just two shots on target against a team ranked 62 places below them.
Despite this, England still topped Group C and will be in pot one in the Euro 2024 draw, but Three Lions icon Pearce saw some worrying signs.
Speaking after talkSPORT's live commentary with Adrian Durham, the ex-England defender revealed his concerns about the lack of creativity displayed by the Three Lions.
He said: «I always put a positive slant on things, but I have got to say alarm bells will be ringing in regards to these two games [Malta and North Macedonia].
»We just haven't been able to break teams down freely. I think that is an Achilles heel of ours.
«As a counter-attacking team, where teams come on to us, we aren't bad when we have space.
»But we've got to work out how to break these teams down.
«I think our build-up from the back line is too slow and easy to defend.»
Of course, England were without Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham for both games due to a shoulder injury.
In his previous two England appearances,
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