Gary Neville doesn’t expect Gareth Southgate to drastically change his England XI, despite their poor performance in their 2-1 win over Slovakia on Sunday.
The Three Lions were facing a humiliating defeat in Gelsenkirchen after an early goal from Ivan Schranz.
A stunning Jude Bellingham overheard kick forced extra-time, however, with Harry Kane then scoring the winner to send England through.
With Southgate’s side struggling for form at Euro 2024, some fans and pundits would like to see the 53-year-old roll the dice.
England news: Gary Neville doesn’t expect Gareth Southgate to make too many changes despite their nervy Euro 2024 win over Slovakia
SKY
Yet Neville, speaking to Sky Sports, has predicted that won’t happen.
“We thought there would be more changes and greater interference, but Gareth’s not going to do that now,” said the former Manchester United star.
“I think it does need some type of change, but Gareth – in the first four games – has made as limited changes as he could possibly do.
“He will be forced into one with [Marc] Guehi being suspended but apart from that, he will go in with the players as he sees it and try and almost play them into form through consistency, and the fact they’re working together more and there’s resilience building in them.
“But it just feels like there is a different dynamic.
JUST IN:Gary Lineker sticks knife into England again and reveals Alan Shearer ‘left the room’ during Slovakia win
“You talk about imbalance, that imbalance will remain if we continue to pick the same players.
“There is a rebalance and reset needed, but I’m not sure we’re going to get it.”
Neville also feels England were ‘frightened to death’ against Slovakia and warned Southgate his side will lose against Switzerland on Saturday if they produce a repeat of that underwhelming performance.
“Four times this England team have played in this tournament where they’ve been below par,” he said.
“They will hope that this is the catalyst for what would be improved performance levels and a change of direction in performance.
READ MORE:England star was ‘disgusted’ with Gareth Southgate during dramatic Euro 2024 win over Slovakia
“Winning is everything in tournaments, but performances matter because eventually there’s only so far you can go being the inferior team.
“Not playing as well and winning will eventually catch you out and I think it will catch England out on Saturday if they keep playing at the same level.
“Let’s be really clear. Three weeks ago, if you had handed this England squad, Gareth Southgate, the players, and us as fans, Switzerland in the quarter-finals, we would have bitten your hand off.
“But Switzerland are playing well, they’re a decent team.
“They are not to be disrespected and they won’t be by the players, but if we don’t raise the performance levels, we’re going out on Saturday.
LATEST SPORTS NEWS:
England news: Gary Neville has warned Gareth Southgate his side must improve in their quarter-final clash with Switzerland this Saturday
REUTERS
“We were fortunate to get past Slovakia and rode our luck in the group where if Denmark scored one more goal, we would have played Germany.
“So we’ve rode our luck twice now, it could be written in the stars that we ride our luck all the way to the final, but my head is telling me we will hit a major obstacle if we carry on and we need to take risks to free ourselves up.
“We looked like England teams of the past where they looked frightened to death, like in the first half yesterday.”
England will start their match against Switzerland as favourites.
But Murat Yakin’s side can’t be underestimated given their impressive showings at Euro 2024 so far.
England news: Gary Neville believes the Three Lions were ‘frightened to death’ in their match against Slovakia
PA
Switzerland beat Hungary in their opening match before drawing 1-1 with Scotland.
They also drew 1-1 with Germany in their third and final game of the group stages.
And Switzerland reached the last eight of the European Championships with a 2-0 win over Italy on Saturday, with Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas both finding the net.
Post comments (0)