Jamie Carragher claims England’s large gamers have ‘gone lacking’
Jamie Carragher has hit out at England’s players after their drab 0-0 draw with Slovenia and insisted they must do more.
The Three Lions topped Group C with the point but put in yet another underwhelming display in Tuesday’s clash, which followed a 1-0 victory over Serbia and a 1-1 draw with Denmark.
The build-up to the Slovenia match had been dominated by the likes of Harry Kane and Declan Rice hitting back at critical pundits, which included Gary Lineker describing England’s performance against Denmark as ‘s***’.
And despite facing a team that are ranked 57th in the world, the Three Lions mustered just four shots in target and were booed off by supporters, with Gareth Southgate coming in for heavy criticism and being pelted with plastic cups thrown by angry fans in the stand.
However, Carragher sympathised with the England boss and claimed it was up to the players to step up if they were going to go on and win the tournament.
Jamie Carragher has hit out at England’s players after their drab 0-0 draw with Slovenia
England put in another underwhelming performance and they have been heavily criticised
Gareth Southgate has faced much of that stick, but Carragher said the players must do more
‘The tactical decisions taken by the manager so far can be debated,’ he told The Telegraph. ‘There is no question they must change in the knockout stages – but they have hardly been outrageous.
‘Phil Foden has played wide for most of his career at Manchester City. He has played the same role for England for four years and never replicated his club form.
‘Bellingham is playing the same position for his country in this competition as he has for Real Madrid all season, winning the Champions League. Let’s be honest. He has been anonymous in the past two games.
‘Saka is outstanding for Arsenal. He has had minimal impact in the past two-and-a-half games. At what point do we take a step back and agree that the underperformance is as much about individuals as the tactics?’
The former Liverpool defender went onto further discuss the struggles of players performing for England and also called for big changes ahead of the last-16.
‘With the exception of Trent Alexander-Arnold in the first two games (and Kieran Trippier due to the lack of fit left-backs), none of them are being asked to do anything so different to what they do for their clubs,’ he added.
Carragher hit out at Jude Bellingham and said he had ‘been anonymous’ in the past two games
He also called for both Cole Palmer (left) and Anthony Gordon (right) to start in the last-16
‘The obvious inclusions for the round of 16 are Mainoo, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon. Like Mainoo, Palmer impressed as substitute against Slovenia, and the team are more balanced with Gordon’s pace.’
England are set to find out their fate for the last-16 later tonight once the group stage concludes.
They will face a third place team from either Group D, E or F, with the Netherlands, Slovakia and Czechia currently occupying those spots, although that could all change depending on Wednesday evening’s results.
