Group stage games are a bit irrelevant to include unless you're trying to push a narrative, but then also no need to include the third place playoff against Belgium tbf. But in the 12 knockout games, he's come up against Croatia who were brilliant then, Germany, Italy, France and now Netherlands. If you finish top of the group, which many big teams don't, you'll get a weaker team so I don't think the draws have always been more generous than other teams.
Ability to beat the bigger teams is another thing. It seems quite simply that England beat teams they're better than and don't beat teams which are better. Simples.
The thing is, England have a much better team now than they did in 2018, so will be interesting to see how the rest of this tournament plays out. I think they'll beat Netherlands, they're just a bit soft.