Bellingham Says England Got Things Wrong at Euro 2024
Jude Bellingham said England got things wrong off the pitch at euro 2024, and he said the squad did not connect as well as it could have. The 22-year-old said the group lacked the kind of hierarchy and mood it needed while England moved through the tournament.
Bellingham on England’s Euro 2024 camp
"It didn’t feel like there was any kind of hierarchy," Bellingham said on the Lions’ Den sofa last week. He added: "I think at the Euros we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch."
He pushed the point further with a direct assessment of the group dynamic. "I don’t feel like the group connected as well as it could have – for a number of reasons," he said, before adding, "We weren’t playing particularly well, which doesn’t help."
Southgate’s Henderson call
Gareth Southgate dropped Jordan Henderson for Euro 2024, along with Harry Maguire, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford. England lost to Spain in the final, and Bellingham’s comments now put a sharper edge on what went wrong inside the camp.
That picture also reaches forward to Thomas Tuchel’s work with the squad. After replacing Southgate as head coach, he brought Henderson back into the England set-up and concluded that the right atmosphere off the pitch would be much easier with the Brentford midfielder around to keep standards high in the dressing room.
Henderson and England’s standards
England did not find a way to operate without Henderson’s leadership at Euro 2024, and Bellingham said the team never felt as if it was as happy as it should be even when it was winning. That leaves Tuchel with a clear reason for turning back to a 36-year-old midfielder who turns that age when England face Croatia in their opening game on Wednesday.
For England, the shift is blunt: the same camp that reached the final without finding its best rhythm is now leaning on Henderson again to steady the dressing room. Bellingham’s comments do not just revisit the tournament; they explain why Tuchel’s first moves have pointed back toward control, order and voice inside the squad.
