A head-turning statistic, highlighting the woes of the England national team in the attacking third of late, has come to the fore on Saturday evening.
The Three Lions, of course, were back in action a short time ago.
After snatching the first point of their Nations League campaign courtesy of a 1-1 draw at Germany in midweek, Gareth Southgate’s troops faced off against another European heavyweight, on this occasion in the form of Italy.
England headed into proceedings with something of a revenge mission in mind, having of course seen their Euro 2020 dream ended by Roberto Mancini’s Azzurri just shy of twelve months ago.
When all was said and done in Wolverhampton, though, the hosts were ultimately forced to settle for a share of the spoils.
This came as an altogether underwhelming 90 minutes, which saw clear-cut chances at a premium, played out into a 0-0 stalemate which neither side could really have argued against.
England needed Aaron Ramsdale and he answered the call ?
Two big saves. Nations League points shared in a 0-0 draw between England and Italy.
That’s two starts and two clean sheets for Ramsdale in a Three Lions shirt.#OptusSport pic.twitter.com/WOggvg5eR5
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) June 11, 2022
Italy, in turn, have maintained their spot atop the Nations League Group C table, boasting five points collected from three games.
England, on the other hand, are glued to the bottom of the table, having scraped together a disappointing haul of two points from their own trio of fixtures to date.
And such struggles on the part of the Three Lions, as alluded to above, come largely owing to a failure to produce in the attacking third.
As revealed by statisticians Opta, despite the array of attacking talent at the disposal of Gareth Southgate, England have now failed to find the net in just shy of half of the country’s 15 Nations League outings thus far:
7 – England have failed to score in seven of their 15 UEFA Nations League games (47%). Indeed, seven of the last eight times the Three Lions have failed to find the net in all competitions have been in this tournament. Denied. pic.twitter.com/4qwoVQYFN3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 11, 2022
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