Gary Neville believes Jude Bellingham is the only England player who is ‘in form’ at the World Cup and has urged the rest of Thomas Tuchel’s squad to ‘step up’ for the round of 32.
Goals from Bellingham and Harry Kane sealed a 2-0 victory over Panama on Saturday night to ensure England finished top of Group L.
England will now play their round-of-32 fixture on Wednesday where they are likely to face either Senegal or DR Congo.
Thomas Tuchel’s side delivered another laboured performance in their final group game against Panama but Bellingham was once again the standout performer for the Three Lions.
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When it was suggested that Bellingham has been England’s best player at the World Cup after the win against Panama, Neville told ITV: ‘Absolutely. He’s the one player who looks like he’s in form, he’s the one player who looks like he’s fresh.
‘He’s sharp, he’s lively, he’s played at the level you would expect. These players have set a standard getting to finals and semi-finals over the last few years.
‘In Thomas Tuchel’s interview he said, ‘we’ll step up in bigger games’, they’re going to have to. I don’t think he’ll be walking off that pitch tonight and looking at the analysis with his coaching staff and think everything’s perfect now.
‘We’ve got to get together in the next four days, we’ve got to get Declan Rice back in the team, we’ve got to get the back four more solid, it looked like they [Panama] cut through us a few times, they didn’t have the quality to punish us but they’re going to have to step up.’
Neville also believes Senegal would ‘fancy their chances’ against England having seen both Ghana and Panama frustrate Tuchel’s attacking players.
‘You’ve got five games to play to win this tournament now with the added extra round. England… Senegal or DR Congo are the opponents that you wouldn’t be scared of before the tournament, but I think if you’re watching England right now you’ve got a bit of a model having watched Ghana and Panama play against England for 60 minutes where you would just sit back and counter-attack. Obviously, teams later on in the tournament wouldn’t do that but if you’re Senegal I think you fancy your chances on the counter-attack,’ Neville said.
‘There are times I’ve been with England where we haven’t got out of the group, there are many times where we’ve not finished top and finished second and ended up with a nightmare run towards the quarter final.
‘It’s probably the most disappointed we’ve ever been with topping the group. The reason for that is these players have set such a standard over the last few years in terms of tournaments that we’re just thinking we want more from them, we want more from Bellingham, we want more from Rogers, we want more from Rashford, that needs to come now.’
Meanwhile, Ian Wright hit back at suggestions before the tournament that Bellingham would not get into England’s best line-up for the World Cup.
‘I can’t understand it, I’ve always backed him and what he’s done and that’s going off what I’ve seen him do,’ Wright said.
‘The fact he’s got a lot of confidence, the fact he’s got a lot of confidence people interpret it as arrogance for him but he’s somebody who when you watch him, whoever he’s playing against, I remember watching him against New Zealand and Costa Rica, he’s exactly the same, he’s going for it, wants to do the best he can, he wants to put the team on his shoulders and run with it and he relishes it.’
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