Former England defender Gary Neville shares his views on whether left-back Luke Shaw will feature in the Three Lions’ Euro 2024 quarter-final tie with Switzerland.
Former England defender Gary Neville believes the Three Lions must “take risks” in their Euro 2024 quarter-final tie with Switzerland, but admits that a start for Luke Shaw is unlikely.
Gareth Southgate‘s side have performed well below par in all four matches at this summer’s tournament in Germany and were just 86 seconds away from an embarrasing 1-0 elimination to Slovakia in the last 16.
However, Jude Bellingham scored a superb overhead kick in the 95th minute to take the game to extra time, before captain Harry Kane completed the comeback with a close-range header just 52 seconds after the restart to secure a 2-1 victory.
A challenging contest against Switzerland, who breezed past holders Italy 2-0 in the last 16, awaits England in the quarter-finals and ex-Manchester United man Neville believe the Three Lions will lose if their performance levels do not improve.
“Four times this England team have played in this tournament where they’ve been below par,” Neville told Sky Sports News. “They will hope that this is the catalyst for what would be improved performance levels and a change of direction in performance.
“Winning is everything in tournaments, but performances matter because eventually there’s only so far you can go being the inferior team. Not playing as well and winning will eventually catch you out and I think it will catch England out on Saturday if they keep playing at the same level.
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Neville: ‘England will lose to Switzerland if they fail to improve’
“Let’s be really clear. Three weeks ago, if you had handed this England squad, Gareth Southgate, the players, and us as fans, Switzerland in the quarter-finals, we would have bitten your hand off.
“But Switzerland are playing well, they’re a decent team. They are not to be disrespected and they won’t be by the players, but if we don’t raise the performance levels, we’re going out on Saturday.
“My head is telling me we will hit a major obstacle if we carry on and we need to take risks to free ourselves up.”
Neville is keen to see Southgate hand starts to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon, but he feels that widespread changes are unlikely – one change is required from Southgate, though, as defender Marc Guehi is suspended due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
“We thought there would be more changes and greater interference, but Gareth’s not going to do that now,” Neville added. “I think it does need some type of change, but Gareth – in the first four games – has made as limited changes as he could possibly do.
“He will be forced into one with [Marc] Guehi being suspended but apart from that, he will go in with the players as he sees it and try and almost play them into form through consistency, and the fact they’re working together more and there’s resilience building in them.
“But it just feels like there is a different dynamic. You talk about imbalance, that imbalance will remain if we continue to pick the same players. There is a rebalance and reset needed, but I’m not sure we’re going to get it.”
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Neville delivers verdict on Luke Shaw
Question marks still remain over the fitness of Luke Shaw who is yet to feature at Euro 2024 and has not played a competitive match since mid-February due to a muscle injury.
Neville has labelled the Man United left-back as “a big asset” for England when fit, but he believes that Southgate would be taking a “massive risk” in handing the 28-year-old a start against Switzerland.
“[Shaw] was available to be used off the bench yesterday, he could have five days of training to put into his legs and his body before Saturday,” said Neville. “It’s a big risk. A fit Luke Shaw is a big asset, and the reason why maybe the left-hand side is not working as it should be is the same reason why it wasn’t working at Manchester United due to Diogo Dalot, Aaron Wan-Bissaka or Victor Lindelof playing there.
“Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho struggled because Shaw wasn’t there linking with them and supporting them. It’s really important and England haven’t had that and suffered with it. Phil Foden has suffered with it. Shaw can overlap and underlap, but we haven’t got it.
“Is it too big a risk playing Shaw on Saturday? My gut feeling is yes. But also my absolute unequivocal position is England need to take risks, to do something and change something. If Southgate feels he can get a performance out of Shaw on Saturday, he will put him in, but it’s a massive risk.”
If Shaw is not deemed fit to start, then Kieran Trippier could continue at left-back, while Ezri Konsa – who finished the win over Slovakia at left-back – and Joe Gomez are other options at Southgate’s disposal.
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