- Gareth Southkeke claims the absence of Calvin Phillips has made the team not perform as well as in previous years.
- This England team has natural midfield players: Bellingham, Gallagher, Mainoo, and Wharton.
- Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker slammed Southgate for saying things that didn’t make sense.
Gareth Southgate is still under constant attack from all sides after failing to lead the team to a good performance even though Euro 2024 has already kicked off 2 matches. Recently, after the England national team drew 1-1 with Denmark, Gareth Southgate revealed that he was still testing the team and the absence of players like Kalvin Phillips clearly made this Three Lions team lack balance. When the story reached the ears of former football legends Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer, both admitted that they were shocked and criticized what Southgate said as not making any sense at all.
“It’s an experiment and we know we haven’t found a natural midfield replacement for Kalvin Phillips yet. We’re trying new things and it’s definitely not flowing.”
“We’ve been trying to solve the problems in midfield for seven or eight years now and if we didn’t have Declan Rice in the last few years, I don’t know what we would have done. Unfortunately, Kalvin Phillips couldn’t play in this tournament, Hendo as well. We’re trying to try something different.”
When the interview reached the ears of Gary Lineker, the 63-year-old legend immediately had a different opinion.
“I think he said that to all the players out there and it’s not true. You’ve got players in the โปรโมชั่น ufabet team who can solve that problem. Even the young players like Adam Wharton can play, Cobbie Mainoo can do it, Jude Bellingham can play if you tell them to. The important thing is you have to teach them and tell them exactly what their job is, how to play.”
Meanwhile, legendary striker Alan Shearer disagreed with what Southgate wanted to convey.
“If all these years we had relied on Calvin Phillips, it would be very worrying. I don’t understand what he is talking about. I mean, he should have known long ago that it wouldn’t work. The standard of his team over the years has not come close to our expectations. If the team continues to play like this, there will be no hope of winning the championship. Unless they have improved by leaps and bounds.”
In addition to the aforementioned issues, Gareth Southgate also had the issue of holding the winner of the Premier League Best Young Player award , Cole Palmer, on the bench for a long time and not being able to play for a single minute. Until there was a trend of criticism as to whether this head coach had any problems with the players or not. Or whether the negative charisma that can turn the likes of Phil Foden, Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka into everyday players is still a big question. Let’s see how in the final group game against Slovenia, Gareth Southgate can win back the faith of the fans.