Gary Neville thinks Gareth Southgate should change Declan Rice s position for England after watching him in their first two Euro 2024 matches.
Among the favourites to go all the way in Germany this summer, the Three Lions have opened the finals with a narrow win and an underwhelming draw, just as they did three years ago.
went on to reach a first their Euros final and suffered a heart-breaking shootout defeat to Italy, but the current feeling around the national team is lower than at the same point in 2021.
that were exacerbated against Denmark, with the team struggling across the board and booed by fans following .
The balance of Southgate s team still feels off with Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold who has been utilised in an unfamiliar midfield position but lots of other players have also been off the pace too.
Rice had a poor match alongside Alexander-Arnold who was taken off for Conor Gallagher on 54 minutes on Thursday night and former Manchester United defender Neville reckons Southgate needs to copy Mikel Arteta to get the best out of the midfielder.
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I want to mention a player who we all love 100 per cent, Neville said on ITV.
Mikel Arteta moved Declan Rice out of that position [No.6] for the last 15 games of the season to bring in Jorginho and [Thomas] Partey, because he’s not that good at playing there.
That’s the most nervous I’ve ever seen Declan Rice and he’s a brilliant player. I think he’s better further up the pitch.
If you think about what [Toni] Kroos, Rodri and Vitinha do, they’re players who get the team going. At Manchester United it was Roy Keane and Paul Scholes. It’s Jorginho at Arsenal.
We don’t seem to have this player. [Kobbie] Mainoo’s probably the one. [Adam] Wharton could do it. We have to resolve this problem and I’m not talking about Gareth in the next four days.
I’m just talking England generally. We’ve never been able to get out from the back properly in moments of pressure.
When he [Rice] receives the ball deep with his back to play, I think he’s quite basic at that. I don’t think he’s as good as the other players who play that position.
Where I think he’s brilliant is where he’s marauding forward, he’s on top of the game, he’s being aggressive. If you look at his touch map for Arsenal in the last part of the season, most of his touches were in the high-left channel.
