There is no reason to be proud of the achievements of the England national team, says former international Jamie Redknapp. According to the former midfielder of, among others, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, more should be demanded from national coach Gareth Southgate.
In a column at Sky Sports, Redknapp is hard on his old teammate: “I can’t place that feeling that England has had a good World Cup. Making it to the quarterfinals was not a great achievement. I don’t think that’s an achievement to celebrate. England could have achieved much more”
According to Redknapp, Southgate failed with his choices in the quarter-final against France, who were 1-2 too strong for the English. “We could have gotten a lot more out of this selection. There was not enough substitution and the wrong players were taken to the side. This is one of the weakest French teams I’ve ever seen. When I played against them with England in 1998, we faced Zinedine Zidane, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Didier Deschamps. Those were players who could turn a game around. Compare that to this team. With all due respect to Olivier Giroud, he is one of their top scorers…” he wrote.
According to Redknapp, England ‘don’t have a killer instinct’
According to Redknapp, England will never again have a better chance of beating France. He thinks that The Three Lions should not be inferior to France and Argentina purely on the basis of quality. “But we don’t have a killer instinct. We are a nice team, we have great young players and we were close, but that’s what makes it so frustrating. We are not inferior to the finalists,” said the analyst.
The English Football Association announced shortly after the elimination at the World Cup that Southgate will stay on as national coach. The sights are already set on the upcoming European Championship. Redknapp added, “More should be expected. With Jude Bellingham you have a player around whom you can build a team. Harry Kane will also be there and then you have Declan Rice and Phil Foden anyway, who I like to see in midfield.”
