Gary Lineker and ‘ultra-positive’ BBC pundits are slammed by followers

Gary Lineker and the BBC punditry panel were blasted by fans for being ‘ultra-positive’ in their assessment of England’s first half against Switzerland on Saturday.

The Three Lions, who were heavily criticised by fans and pundits ahead of their crucial quarter-finals against the Swiss, went in level at the break despite changing formation to a back three.

Despite England heading in at 0-0, Lineker described the Three Lions’ performance as ‘terrific’, while Rio Ferdinand claimed it was a ‘huge improvement’.

The BBC host said, highlighting how impressed he has been by Manchester United starlet Kobbie Mainoo: ‘We’ve seen terrific performance in the first half, obviously you can mention Saka, Bellingham’s been all over the place… but Kobbie Mainoo, I mean, really?

‘He turned 19 two months ago. Second youngest player to play in a quarter-final for England. The other one was Wayne Rooney.’

Gary Lineker and the BBC panel were blasted by fans for being ‘ultra-positive’ at half time

England went in level at 0-0 against Switzerland in their crucial quarter-final at Euro 2024

Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Micah Richard (left to right) praised England’s performance

Meanwhile, Ferdinand said: ‘We’ve been asking for a performance. I think we look now like a team that understand how to press, how to keep the ball, how to get out from restarts. It’s just that we’ve spoken the word cohesion, spoken about it with this team lacking it. I think today has been a huge improvement, like you say.

‘And we’re sitting here going, look, we look like we could feel a goal coming. There’s players exciting us, individuals which we’ll come to. But this is England that I anticipated seeing in this tournament.’

And fellow BBC pundit Micah Richards, evidently pleased with England’s display, said: ‘We said that, didn’t we? Control. We said confidence. I highlighted before the game what Switzerland could do. England have just not allowed them to do the rotations, dropping into positions, playing the right passes.

‘They’ve had no shots on target, Switzerland. So England are doing a really good job.’

Fans flooded to social media to slam the BBC team for their ‘ultra positive’ assessment of the first half. 

‘The England team have been more positive but nothing like as positive as the BBC punditry team,’ one fan said on X. 

Another added: ‘So the BBC pundits saying this has been an unbelievable England performance and Foden has played like the best 10 in the world. We are living in an episode of Black Mirror.’

‘North Korean levels of propaganda from the BBC pundits here,’ a fourth supporter added.

Another posted: ‘0 shots on target and the BBC pundits would have you thinking they’ve played like 1982 Brazil.’

Kobbie Mainoo came close to breaking the deadlock before Granit Xhaka blocked his effort

Fans took to social media to slam the BBC for their ‘ultra positive’ assessment of the first half

Jamie Carragher joked in response to fans slamming the BBC on social media at half time

A third posted: ‘Seems like pundits on BBC have been told off for been honest about England performance over last few weeks and are now trying to be ultra positive to make up. That half wasn’t great.’

Former England international Jamie Carragher, who works for a pundit as Sky Sports, posted: ‘On the BBC England are 2-0 up, on Twitter England are 0-1 down!’