Emmanuel Petit has admitted he feels sorry for Gareth Southgate, but has no idea what game plan he’s trying to implement.

England stuttered to a 2-1 win over Slovakia in the last 16 on Sunday night following an underwhelming Euro 2024 group stage.

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Jude Bellingham pulled off an overhead kick to pull his country level at the death, before Harry Kane netted the winner in extra time to save England's Euro campaign - but there are still many questions marks over the Three Lions' performances.

Before his talkSPORT commentary duty began for France’s last 16 win against Belgium Petit detailed what he thought was going wrong for them.

When quizzed on Southgate, the France legend told Euro Game Day Live: “Sometimes I feel pity for him because I’m pretty sure he’s a nice guy, a good guy. 

“Managing the team he has done many good things you know in the past with the national team but he never got silverware.

“This competition looks like what I saw in 2000 with the great generation of English players. [Paul] Scholes, Steven Gerrard and more and more beautiful players.

“And they haven’t done anything. So yes, I can understand the frustration from the fans because I share them. 

“But I don’t understand sometimes because I always found it’s choices for the manager. It’s a hard job. But when I look [at] what Southgate tried to do, I have no idea what he wants to do.

“I don’t know what he’s trying to do. The key you know for the English team, is it possession of the ball, is it deep block, is it higher pressure on the opponents? I have no idea.

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“And when they have the ball, and when they don’t have the ball, I have no idea what they do. It’s just based on individual’s qualities.”

Southgate has been critiqued for trying to fit all of England’s big names into his XIs, even if that means they’re not playing in their best position.

For example, Phil Foden won Premier League Player of the Year has been played on the left wing at the Euros despite excelling best from midfield with Manchester City.

This has led him and Jude Bellingham, who is being deployed as the 10, to get tangled, with Kane also getting sucked in.

And Petit thinks Southgate is relying on moments of individual excellence rather than playing well together as a team.

But the Frenchman also thinks England are not the only ones competing at Euro 2024 that struggle with this.

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“With the French, it’s quite the same sometimes,” he said. “If we give the ball to [Kylian] Mbappe, it’s going to make the difference.

“When I saw Bellingham scored a goal yesterday I was thinking ‘at least Bellingham was expecting to score just like Kane’ and they did.

“And I thought ‘okay collectively it’s a mess’, but individually those guys score. They were expecting to score and they scored. 

“I think French fans, they are expecting the same with Mbappe. I’m pretty sure Didier Deschamps is thinking the same with [Antoine] Griezmann and Mbappe.”

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No France player has scored from open play this tournament with their 1-0 win over Belgium won through Jan Vertonghen's own goal.

Mbappe is the only French player to score at this tournament with his strike coming via a penalty in their group match against Poland.