England were frozen by fear during their shock defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016
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Roy Hodgson’s side lost 2-1 in one of the biggest upsets in European Championship history, with the manager confirming his resignation shortly after the final whistle in Nice.
England struggled to break down Iceland in a tepid second-half performance but Redknapp disagrees with those who claim they do not have the quality or passion to succeed at the highest level.
Instead, the former England international believes “elementary” mistakes were the result of the team’s mentality in the second half at the Allianz Riviera.
“I think the players were overcome by fear, but why that is, I can’t figure out,”
“These are quality players but people like Harry Kane and Dele Alli, who have been performing so well for their clubs, were a shadow of themselves yesterday.
“It was completely the opposite of what we normally expect from them. Eric Dier and Wayne Rooney in midfield were the same.
“The amount of elementary mistakes we saw – the ball going under people’s feet, Joe Hart’s mistake for the goal – it just compounded all the errors we’ve made over quite a long time. It was such a disappointing evening for the whole country.
“I’ve been in situations before and lost games, perhaps not of this magnitude because that was one of the most disappointing results I can ever remember for England.
“But I can recall losing FA Cup third round games against lower-league teams and that was what it was like. They will be feeling so sorry for themselves and rightly so, but I don’t quite subscribe to the thinking they lack passion and don’t care.”
Hodgson stepped down as England manager with immediate effect following his side’s elimination, and Redknapp says his legacy will be one of “major disappointment”.
“It was a surprise in the first place when he got the job because he was manager of West Brom when they were going along fairly averagely,”
“What did the FA expect? But it has been really poor, certainly in tournament football.
“Now the inquest will begin and people will say we haven’t got good players. We have got good players because I see it week-in, week-out.
“We have Kane, who finished above Sergio Aguero as the top Premier League scorer last year, and Alli. We can’t keep hiding behind, ‘we haven’t got the players’.
“The goal we conceded from the long throw was bad coaching, and that’s where we should be educating players. We knew every single thing Iceland were going to do and we weren’t ready for it.
“It can’t just be about the players, the coaches have to take some responsibility as well.”
