‘DELUSIONAL’ ENGLAND BOSS TOLD HE’S ‘RUINED THIS FOOTBALL TEAM’ AS PUNDIT GIVES DAMNING VERDICT
England boss Gareth Southgate has been told that his Three Lions side have “embarrassed the tournament” and the fans by Jamie O’Hara.
Southgate’s men have been criticised for their underwhelming performances in all four of their matches at Euro 2024 after they won their group with a 1-0 win over Serbia and two draws against Denmark and Slovenia.
And their display against Slovakia in their last-16 clash on Sunday was no better as they relied on a Jude Bellingham overhead kick in the fifth minute of stoppage time to take the game to extra time.
England eventually won 2-1 after Harry Kane scored early on in extra time to line up a quarter-final match against Switzerland on Saturday.
Despite the victory, some England supporters are remaining negative about the chances of the Three Lions getting much further unless Southgate makes big changes.
O’Hara said on talkSPORT: “We’re going out, mate. They’ve embarrassed the tournament, the fans and ourselves.
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“They’ve ruined this football team.”
So far Southgate has played the same starting XI apart from one midfield position with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Conor Gallagher and Kobbie Mainoo all given the chance to impress alongside Declan Rice.
But O’Hara thinks bigger changes are needed if England are to progress past Switzerland with Cole Palmer and others impressing when called upon.
O’Hara added: “I feel the nation has now gone the other way and been like ‘we’re going out, it’s just a matter of time, so we’ll just accept it.’ I accepted going out tonight almost with Slovakia. I made peace with it.
“But to come up against Switzerland…I can’t see a better performance. I can’t see how we get past Switzerland.
“If he plays the same side we are absolutely going out against Switzerland.”
When put to him that Southgate will probably stick with the same side again against the Swiss as he ‘got over the line again’, O’Hara replied: “No, you can’t think like that as a manager, that’s delusion.
“It’s delusional thinking, he can’t think that. He has to look at it and go ‘right, this can’t continue, I’ve tried, I’ve tried and I’ve tried.'”
Speaking about the quarter-final on Saturday being his 100th match in charge, Southgate said: “That’s neither here nor there.
“We haven’t come to just get to a quarter-final, but to get through a night like tonight was fantastic character and we now play a Swiss team that have been very good.
“We have a couple of days to recover and get ready for them.”
2024-07-01T10:45:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd