3. Tactical Inflexibility
It was astonishing to watch Roy Hodgson not make any tactical changes throughout all 3 games in the groups, despite the results going against his team. It seemed that the strategy was go out and dominate possession, and when that didn't work, try plan B: dominate possession. England fatally didn't close down Pirlo and eliminate his controlling play from the Italian game; we didn't man handle an unfit Suarez so that he needed to be substituted through exhaustion after 30 minutes. Instead we tried to boss possession against two teams who both had special tactics for every one of their opponents. Yes it is a statement of a lack of confidence to play to the other team's game, but England aren't in a position to be as arrogant as to ignore that approach to stifling opposition. When Rooney was playing poorly, he was allowed to sulk and continue to play rubbish: when Sterling got tired, Lallana came on and was told to be like Sterling. Barkley came on and copied Henderson exactly in playing the invisible midfielder and Welbeck actually tried really hard - which was at least promising to see! Roy Hodgson may have to add a few pages to his game plan book because page one doesn't cut it.