It is becoming increasingly difficult to know what to make of this mixed bag of an England team, and to know how alarmed we should be, and to know how to weigh their emerging strengths against such obvious — and persistently costly — shortcomings. And to know what to do with them.
Parts of their 2-0 defeat by Canada, which was their ninth in 15 games, could have formed one of those Previously on… The Lionesses sequence, a whirring ream of defensive blunders and precious few legitimate chances to complete the picture for those who have just joined us. The latest reel will be bookend by the defensive errors that have dogged England for years and all throughout the final games of Phil Neville’s tenure.
