England need John Stones in midfield for Declan Rice ego

Declan Rice is not a defensive marauder; Arsenal have learned that and so must England. Is John Stones that man?

Pick the players in their positions. And that’s it.
I don’t know why people are surprise. When the England team doesn’t gel. It’s not the quality of the players only a fool would say they aren’t top drawer.

The manager clearly has a role to play. But assuming they’re not ridiculously timid and defence minded relying on attackers making it up for themselves, then relatively normal tactics should work.

The issue, as I see it, is the players selected. There seems to be some expectation or pressure to pick all the favourites all of the time at the expense of balance.

When Rice went to Arsenal, he was expected to slot in a defensive marauder.

But it quickly became clear that’s not what he is. He wants to play box to box and gets frustrated if he’s asked to be disciplined. Lad has an ego, shown in สมัคร ufabet interviews during the last England campaign. That’s why West Ham and then Arsenal had to accommodate him differently.

England don’t have a superstar defensive midfield player. Phillips was probably the closest. Now the closest is maybe Wharton. Maybe paired with Mainoo as both are willing to cover. If you pick Rice with someone outright creative, all the defence side sits with him, and that doesn’t work (for him).

I forget the match, but where Rice and Mainoo were paired, first half was great, but half time you could see Mainoo was told to stay back to Rice could get forward, and our quality link-ups died. Rice is a damn good player, but he’s not a DM. He’s not a link man.