Euro 2024: BBC Sport’s Nedum Onuoha explains why he thinks the big teams and star players are not at their best

I think it’s time to rethink our perception of international football and redefine our expectations of major tournaments.

Many people following Euro 2024 feel that the big boys have not performed, that the star players have not shone and that the top teams have not delivered.

There are important reasons for this.

As we sit here in July, many clubs are starting their pre-seasons. But for players involved with their national teams in Germany, the previous season is not over yet.

In some cases they are playing their 60th or 70th game of the season. Fatigue is a major factor in games played in the hottest months of the summer.

Let’s be clear: the best versions of these teams and individual players – the ones that delight us in the Champions League and the Premier League – are not necessarily happening right now.

That is important when we make a judgment.

For me, tournament football is a bit like the last third of the season, where people really play for nice things: titles, promotion, relegation, European places, and so on.

This is where you might want to a good performance, but you need the result.

What we see more and more is football that is based on results, and because of that we sometimes find ourselves in a position where it’s not as much fun as we would like it to be.

There is a more general approach where you first make sure you are strong defensively and only then you try to be expressive.

The Champions League final is a similar example. Very often it features at least one, if not two, of Europe’s best teams. Very rarely does it produce a spectacle that can match the talent on the pitch.

The stakes are often so high that people are afraid of making mistakes.

There is an element of players and managers at Euro 2024 being reluctant to take risks because you know the team is good enough and if you fall behind the game could be over.

When you play against the so-called smaller or middle-class countries, you want them to be open with their style, but those teams are the exact opposite.

Look at Slovenia, who lost to Portugal on penalties, but in four games they haven’t lost a single game.

You wouldn’t expect that from Slovenia, right? But they’ve been very tough and determined.

The bar is set much higher in terms of the competitive nature of this tournament, and it is proving quite difficult for some of the bigger teams to break these teams.

We can talk about how we can improve international football as a spectacle, but for me this is the way international football is now.

You can still enjoy everything that a big tournament brings.

It seems that fans from all countries have come to Germany to visit the stadium during this European Championship.

They bring that liveliness and noise that we have probably missed since the 2016 European Championship in France.

I like international football because of the tactical nuances. You can have stars, but that doesn’t automatically mean you’re successful.

When we think about international football, we always talk about the attackers.

Most people know Europe’s best attackers, but Europe also has some of the best defenders.

They will not create a style of play that favors the opponent. They will not have players who completely ignore the people they are playing against.

There can be a cry for attackers to just take the ball, go out to the wing and do this, do that, but if someone is a really good dribbler, you will never see them one-on-one, because the opposition will make sure it is always one-on-two.

In international football, if you make it as difficult as possible for your opponent, you will be difficult to beat. And if you are difficult to beat, you will get a chance.

Some might wonder, would it be more fun if we had more attacking-minded elite managers?

However, I don’t think that there would be ‘better’ club managers who could find that extra one or two percent and who would approach things completely differently.

There is a certain cultural aspect to these different countries that defines how they play, because the crowd itself is not the crowd of, say, a Premier League manager.

You’re being tricked into it because it’s run by people who are experts and talk about the Premier League all the time.

There are many fans who don’t care about false nines and the rest.