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Gary Neville baffled by two Gareth Southgate decisions in England's World Cup USA draw
Gary Neville was disappointed by England's draw to the USA.
England fans at Boxpark watch 0-0 draw with USA
Manchester United icon Gary Neville was disappointed by Gareth Southgate's decision not to use both Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold in England's 0-0 draw with the USA on Friday. The Three Lions remain top of Group B after the stalemate, but fans and pundits were not impressed by the performance as England were unable to back up their opening World Cup 6-2 win over Iran.
Southgate only made four substitutions and could have secured qualification to the knock-out rounds with victory, but Neville felt that he should have brought Foden and Alexander-Arnold on to add some creativity.
"I’ve got a lot of respect for Gareth and what he’s achieved - he’s achieved the msot since Alf Ramsey. But we’ve got a couple of talents sat on the bench in the form of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Foden who are capable of opening up the game," Neville told ITV.
"Alexander-Arnold has some of the best deliveries you’ll ever see from full-back and on that right side when [Marcus] Rashford came on, he had [Jordan] Henderson and [Kieran] Trippier so he was blocked from getting that delivery in. I think those two coming off the bench is a little bit disappointing, if you’re trying to win the game they’re world-class talents.
"I think he’s [Southgate] worried about him [Alexander-Arnold] defensively. If we’re not confident of playing him when we’re playing USA, who had a comfortable third game when we were going to play the whole of the bench. We haven’t got that now and that’s fine, no panic here.
"Other nations, France, Spain, Brazil would have Trent Alexander-Arnold and Foden in their starting 11. I understand it from watching it a little bit having watched Trent Alexander-Arnold, you see a game of that where we lack creativity you think them two players should really be in there."
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England were booed off in the draw, before Southgate gave an explanation as to why he left Foden on the bench despite his impressive form this season for Manchester City.
“We thought it was the right thing to keep the team from the start then the wide players we went with Jack [Grealish] and Marcus ahead of Phil for the changes," Southgate said.
“Jack can keep the ball well for us and get us up the pitch, Marcus’ speed we thought would also be a threat going into the last part of the game.”