Most of England’s players are horribly out of form but that is no surprise | Karen Carney

Mental fatigue would be natural after Euro 2020 and less than ideal pre-season preparations also point to the need for a break

England’s players rode the crest of a wave all summer as they made it to the final of the European Championship but came crashing down with those missed penalties. The physical exertion of a year of nonstop football is very hard to recover from but the mental exhaustion is even harder, especially when it ends in disappointment.

I did nine back-to-back summer tournaments and never got back to feeling myself until after Christmas, when the women’s game takes a break, but the men do not have that opportunity this winter. Few of England’s players have hit the ground running in the Premier League as they struggle to process the disappointment of missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a major tournament on home soil, and perhaps the mental anguish has taken its toll.