I didn’t think England were under too much pressure coming into Euro 2024, but they are about to really feel it now.
I heard Kyle Walker defend their performance against Denmark, and England’s tactics, afterwards, and I understand why – I have been in his position as a player, and said similar things myself.
But England were booed off after Thursday’s 1-1 draw in Frankfurt, and the crowd were gone within a minute of the game ending, so that tells you the mood of the fans.
I was just as critical in my co-commentary at the Waldstadion, and so were Micah Richards and Rio Ferdinand in the BBC studio.
I think we all had a valid point, because that performance was nowhere near good enough.
I know England sit top of their group and are unbeaten but you have to analyse the performance and look at what went right and wrong and, while there is plenty to chew over what went wrong, not much, if anything, was right.
When you’re a player in the England camp at a major tournament, though, you go into protective mode. You can become very defensive, especially if things are not going to plan.
You feel like you have to say the kind of positive things that Walker was talking about and, even if you know you can do much better as a team, you just have to try to block out any negative reaction.
It is better to stay in the bubble
Blocking out the noise about your performances is even more difficult now than it was during my England days because of social media and the increased scrutiny the players are under.
Southgate has already spoken about it to his squad after the opening win over Serbia in Group C and explained how there are usually 20 Premier League teams to write or talk about, but now all eyes are on them.
He’s right and, to deal with that, the players are better off staying off in the bubble inside the camp. I always did.
Walker says he rarely reads the media or pays attention to what is being said on TV or radio, and I was exactly the same in his situation.
I experienced the full force of it at Euro ’96. We had gone on a tour of the Far East a couple of weeks before the tournament started and there were some incidents, including the original ‘dentist’s chair’ escapade, that resulted in us getting a lot of stick in the media.
So, we were under pressure because of that and, because we were hosts, there was also an expectation for us to perform on our own patch.
We started the tournament slowly, with a 1-1 draw with Switzerland when we did not play particularly well. But any criticism we got for that did not affect us because we already had a siege mentality in the squad after the coverage we had received before a ball was kicked.
Our manager Terry Venables dealt with it brilliantly to take the pressure off us and made sure that, inside the England camp, it was still a positive place to be.
It is going to be down to Gareth Southgate to try to do the same in the coming days, because there is probably a barrage of criticism on the way.
The manager is going to bear the brunt it, because we are not seeing these players perform the same way for England as they do every week for their clubs.
This team needs a spark
I spoke after the game about John Stones and how, in two games at this tournament, we have not once seen him come out of defence with the ball or operate in midfield like he does all the time for Manchester City.
Similarly, if you were listening to my co-commentary of the Denmark draw, you would have heard how frustrated I was that we are not seeing Declan Rice burst forward from midfield the way he does for Arsenal.
Gareth is a bright guy, so he will know what is coming – he will also know that his job is to get the best out of his players, and he is not doing that at the moment.
As individuals, they are not performing anywhere near how they can and should be. As a team, there was no aspect of what they did with or without the ball that was anywhere near good enough.
We lacked energy, our pressing was not right – we did not seem to know who should go or when – and the balance was not right in midfield… the list goes on and on.
There is a lot to work on, but course we still have to remember that things can turn very quickly in tournament football.
That was the case for us in our second game at Euro ’96 when Scotland had a penalty saved at 1-0 and then we went up the other end and Paul Gascoigne produced that bit of magic – everything was different for us after that, and we really kicked on in our next game, against the Netherlands.
This team needs a similar spark now too. They are definitely capable of finding it but, whether it is a moment in a game or a tactical switch that turns things round, it needs to happen very quickly.
Alan Shearer was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan in Germany.