Gareth Southgate has come under fire from England icon Gary Lineker for leaving out two players for the match against Italy. Lineker criticised the decision to bench Trent Alexander-Arnold and questioned why James Maddison was left out of the team once more.
England was eliminated from the top Nations League group after losing 1-0 to Italy in Milan. Giacomo Raspadori's excellent second-half goal was sufficient to give Robert Mancini's team the victory.
The Three Lions have now dropped all five of their games. They have gone three games without scoring and 495 minutes of play without an open-play goal.
And Lineker has certainly made his feelings clear on social media. He believes Leicester star Maddison and Liverpool’s Alexander-Arnold would be able to solve England’s creativity problems.
Maddison has just one cap for England in 2019 and was ignored by Southgate despite a fine start to the season for Leicester. Meanwhile, Alexander-Arnold remained on the bench at the San Siro on Friday.
Lineker tweeted: “A gentle reminder that England’s most creative midfielder, @Madders10 was not in the squad of 28. And England’s most creative footballer, @TrentAA sat on the bench getting splinters in his a**e…”
Lineker was clearly not enjoying his Friday night viewing. He earlier tweeted: “I think Gareth Southgate’s tactical master plan of not giving us any hope in order not to kill us is working beautifully thus far.”
England have just one game remaining before the World Cup in Qatar begins in November. The players were booed off after the full-time whistle in Milan and Southgate admits he couldn’t blame the fans.
He said in his post-match press conference: “I understand the reaction at the end because that’s the results we’ve had in this competition. It’s an understandable emotional reaction.
“There’s going to be a lot of noise but that will be around me and that’s absolutely fine. It’s my job to take that pressure for them.
“I personally thought the performance was a step in the right direction but I perfectly understand that because of the result that’s not going to be the reaction.
“We’ve got to keep working on it and make sure we stay on track. There’ll be a huge amount of noise of course but that’s created from the summer, really and I totally understand that.”
“The players in the dressing room know this was a game they well could have won. And if they take their chances and defend the goal better, then we do win. It’s fine margins. We’re playing some of the biggest football nations and the fine margins are decisive.”