Joe Hart claims ‘struggling’ England star ‘left a void’ during Argentina World Cup defeat

Joe Hart says Declan Rice was clearly struggling during England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina and ‘left a void’ in central midfield.

England suffered a dramatic 2-1 defeat to Argentina on Wednesday as late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez saw the defending champions come from behind to reach Sunday’s final.

Thomas Tuchel’s side went ahead through Anthony Gordon but paid the price for a series of negative substitutions as they looked to hold on for a narrow victory.

Rice was one such player to make way in the closing stages, replaced by Nico O’Reilly as England went to a 5-4-1, ultimately in vain, for the final ten minutes.

Rice came into the tournament with a lingering hamstring injury from a gruelling season with Arsenal, and did not hit his usual levels for large parts of England’s campaign.

An illness left him bedbound for three days before England’s quarter-final with Norway, with Rice eventually hooked at half-time after struggling in the intense Miami heat.

While passed fit to start England’s semi-final against Argentina, the 27-year-old still appeared off the pace and again failed to have his usual influence on and off the ball alongside Elliot Anderson in central midfield.

And former England goalkeeper Hart believes Rice’s lack of energy in midfield ultimately came back to bite the Three Lions.

‘He did struggle; he struggled in that central midfield,’ Hart said on the BBC post-match. ‘I think we took him for granted a little bit in terms of how we set the team up.

‘Declan Rice needed to be able to be top of the running stats, creation, taking free-kicks and corners and that long, hard season he had with Arsenal has caught up with him.

‘But that is what happens at these tournaments: the best players – and I’m not knocking Declan for this because you can’t help how you feel physically and with illness – but he’s such an important player for England.

‘I’m sure Anderson did everything he could to fill that void that Rice left but there’s no doubt that at the latter end of this tournament that Declan has struggled a little bit.’

Elsewhere, Hart was quick to question Tuchel’s in-game management after England and said the German had failed to learn from the mistakes of his predecessor.

‘Gareth Southgate will be at home watching this game, and he took a lot of criticism when it came to big moments with England when they had the lead and shutting up shop but I don’t see anything has changed in the big moment out there,’ Hart added.

‘For Thomas Tuchel, for all the praise we have given him, for him to change it as soon as he did.

‘I think he realised he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t believe they could land any more punches on Argentina.

‘Norway and Mexico panicked, they were just whipping balls into the box and Dan Burn was licking his lips. I didn’t see one bit of panic from that Argentinian side. I saw belief, I saw them realising they could free up the great man Messi in the pocket, and they were running all over England.’

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