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Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has criticized England manager Gareth Southgate for his handling of Jadon Sancho at Euro 2020.
Sancho is yet to feature for England at the tournament. The likes of Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish have all been preferred over the Borussia Dortmund attacker.
Southgate received plenty of flak from fans and pundits for England’s insipid display against Scotland in their previous game.
Despite the obvious lack of creativity, Sancho remained an unused substitute in the game. He watched on from the bench as England could only muster a draw and were arguably the inferior side in the Euro 2020 clash.
Southgate explained after the game that Sancho wasn’t used owing to his experience. But Ferdinand feels the statements show the England manager’s naivety at Euro 2020.
“There’s inexperienced players that haven’t been to tournaments, they’re everywhere. You go on what they’ve done at their club and the last three years, in terms of output, Sancho has been the second best player in terms of goal involvement – and he’s done it at Dortmund. So to think that you’re talking about experience… he’s played more games than [Phil] Foden at the top level as well as [Mason] Mount and [Jude] Bellingham,” Ferdinand said on his Youtube channel.
Ferdinand added that "as a manager you’ve got to be brave" and not "err on the side of caution."
“In his own mind he’ll think he’s being brave when we’re sitting here going, “Just play him!”, because we’ve seen him play at the top level. But if you’re sitting there as Gareth Southgate, you’ve got to go against your natural instinct,” Ferdinand added.
Also read: David James column - Top 5 favorites to win Euro 2020
Sancho in line to feature in England’s final Euro 2020 group stage game
England are expected to make some changes for their clash against Czech Republic later today (June 22).
Manager Gareth Southgate will hope to guide England to a first-place finish in their group. Simultaneously, he will have to rest some key players as well to keep them fresh for their first knockout game of the tournament.
With qualification to the Round of 16 sealed, Southgate will have the chance to try different players and potentially a new formation. There are rumors doing the rounds that indicate Sancho could get some minutes against Czech Republic.
The winger's performances for Borussia Dortmund were impressive last season. Sancho scored 16 goals and assisted 20 in 38 matches for the German club. Despite these numbers, he has spent all his time on the bench at Euro 2020 which has come as a surprise to many fans and analysts.
Also Read: Paul Merson's column - 5 surprise packages of Euro 2020 so far
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