Lineker’s England U-turn exhibits buddies he’s ‘frightened’ after blaming Daily Star
Alan Shearer cheekily suggested Gary Lineker was scared of another uproar after the Match of the Day presenter offered a surprisingly upbeat take on England’s lacklustre draw with Slovenia.
The nation groaned as Gareth Southgate’s side wrapped up their Euro 2024 Group C journey with a yawn-inducing 0-0 against FIFA’s 57th ranked team. Despite the snooze-fest, Lineker was unusually upbeat, particularly after he described the Three Lions’ 1-1 draw with Denmark as “s***”.
The former Barcelona and Tottenham forward then had a jab at our own Daily Star Sport reporter for asking Harry Kane the question that led to the England skipper’s cool rebuttal to the face of Walkers’ crisps. But days later, Lineker appeared more forgiving about the Slovenia stalemate than he was of the performance against the Danes.
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During his appearance on the Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “I think there were signs in that performance that I quite liked. I would say in the second half, not the first half necessarily, I thought you could see that if this team continue to play a high press, chances will come.
“We may have been playing that way because Slovenia knew that a draw would get them through, so they were cautious and sat back a little bit. I understand that but I saw enough to suggest that England are improving slightly.”
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(Image: YouTube/The Rest is Football podcast)
However, Lineker’s fellow pundits Micah Richards and Shearer didn’t share his optimism. A perplexed Richards responded: “Do you know who we were playing tonight? A team ranked 57th in the world.”
After Lineker attempted to further defend his views, a sceptical Shearer said: “If I was a cynic, one would say one was frightened of getting criticised,” to which a defiant Lineker hit back: “Me? Frightened of getting criticised? I’ve never been frightened of getting criticised in my life. I’m telling it as I see it.
(Image: Getty Images)
“I thought the first half was really dreadful and once again, no high press [but there was] an occasional couple of little bits, but thought it was really poor. I didn’t like the team selection, I thought it was incredibly conservative.
“But in the second half, the fact he actually made a substitution at half-time [was good] and I thought Mainoo did really well. I thought Palmer did really well when he came on.”
