Gary Neville has slammed Thomas Tuchel’s selection for England’s World Cup group stage game against Panama after injuries have shown a clear weakness in the squad
Gary Neville believes there’s ‘turbulence’ following confirmation of Thomas Tuchel’s England starting XI against Panama.
The former Manchester United defender highlighted specific worries about Jarell Quansah’s deployment at right-back after the injury that has sidelined Reece James for the fixture.
James is set to remain unavailable unless England reach the tournament’s final stages, with fellow right-back Tino Livramento having already left the squad through injury. Tuchel opted to replace the Newcastle star with a centre-half rather than a direct replacement, drafting in Trevoh Chalobah.
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Djed Spence remains the sole natural option in that position, though the German boss has deployed him more regularly on the left side. The Tottenham defender begins on the substitutes’ bench against Panama.
Tuchel has backed Quansah as one of five changes with England already secured passage to the last 32. The Three Lions must still secure first place in Group L, with Tuchel leaning on greater squad depth than he likely envisaged for the World Cup.
Neville doubts Quansah can operate in that role during the tournament’s business end and has voiced his reservations about Tuchel’s choices to cover the position.
“He’s making a lot of changes to it,” Neville said of the starting XI. “He [Tuchel] said before the tournament that he wanted 14 or 15 starters and he’s on starter number 17 already.
“The one position I think I am pretty qualified to speak on is right back and if you had said to me a couple of months ago that Quansah would be playing right-back for England in a tournament, I would say something has gone badly wrong.
“He’s picked Reece James and Livramento, players who are injury prone. He’s not brought Trent Alexander-Arnold, who obviously is someone with world class quality, for what reasons we can only imagine.
“That is where we are right now, England will win this group and win this game but there is some turbulence in there.
“Djed Spence is the only real option at right-back,” he continued. “Quansah is not an option going into the games further into the tournament, so I think the reasons he has probably done it today are he is thinking ‘look, we can handle Panama, Quansah can play there, and Spence can come in for the 32’.”
Fellow ITV pundit Roy Keane chimed in: “When you start getting into knockout games, you don’t want a jack-of-all-trades. You need masters at these positions. That would be the worry going forward.”