Declan Rice ridicules England’s fitness claims – Surely Southgate’s tactics are spot on?

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·24. Juni 2024

Declan Rice ridicules England’s fitness claims – Surely Southgate’s tactics are spot on?

It has been true that England have hardly been exciting so far in the Euros and to be fair it looks like they are yet to get out of first gear.

But Gary Lineker is definitely over the top when he calls the team S**T, as the facts say otherwise as Southgate’s team are currently unbeaten and top their Group with qualification as good as certain.

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Arsenal’s Declan Rice has given a fairly measured response to the accusations when he was asked if the team was fit enough to perform by ITV: “Yes of course. Of course we are.’ he said.

He added: ‘Oh yeah it’s been ridiculous (that our fitness has been questioned). Let them keep questioning it.

‘Honestly, we are built to play these types of seasons. Because we’re sitting in a low block people automatically assume that we’re tired and you know, we’re leggy, or that we’re not fit enough to run around.

‘If we weren’t fit enough then we shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t be football players if we can’t compete for 90 minutes.

‘So yeah, we are fit enough.’

Now let’s look at it another way…

The Euros is held over an intense month in the middle of summer and can be very draining, so if you can make sure you gain your points in the early rounds without any exerting too much energy, then surely you will conserve energy for the later knockout stages.

Yes, it may be boring, and we have seen lots of tight exciting (and physical) games in other Group games, but how much more draining is it for the teams involved?

We know Southgate is very conservative but he still wants his players to be fit for the more important games. In fact now we have qualified for the next round he can rest some big stars for the Slovenia game, it’s not like he is not short of quality backups is it?

The Three Lions only need a draw tomorrow to end up topping the Group and if they can do that without any injuries or fatigue, then as far as I am concerned Southgate has got his tactics completely spot on, and then they can step up a gear when they get to the knockouts.

Let’s see how far Southgate can go in the competition before we start calling him and his team boring shall we?

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