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Alan Shearer names two players who have to start for England v Czech Republic

3 years ago
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Alan Shearer has been looking forward to Tuesday night, when England take on the Czech Republic.

Depending on their result and that of Croatia v Scotland, England could finish top, second or third in Group D.

To finish top of the group is a simple equation, England need to win. The Czech Republic have the same number of points (four) but a better goal difference, so victory is needed if England are to end up first in what is a very poor to mediocre group if you are honest.

England could finish second even if they lose, a draw for Croatia and Scotland would leave them with only two points each.

Meanwhile, defeat for England and a win for either Scotland or Croatia AND them going above Southgate’s team on goal difference, would then mean England still potentially going through as one of the four best third placed teams.

Bottom line, despite having played poorly and helped by the fact only eight of twenty four teams are eliminated at this stage, England are very unlikely to be knocked out, indeed it would be some achievement by them if they managed to do so.

The most important thing for England on Tuesday night is arguably putting in a convincing performance, both for the benefit of players and fans.

The win against Croatia covered up the fact that they in reality had very little attacking threat and only two efforts on target including the goal, whilst against Scotland, having only one shot on target says it all.

Alan Shearer sees two easy selection choices to be made who have to play against Czech Republic, with Harry Kane definitely needing to stat despite his lack of impact so far, with Jack Grealish the other name the former Newcastle and England captain puts forward. The two of them inextricably linked.

Kane hasn’t looked great but the service to him has been woeful, with Alan Shearer seeing Grealish as the player who can provide the creativity and spark to get Harry Kane and England going.

A victory is also needed for England to stay at Wembley as group winners.

Bottom line is that they have been given every advantage, all three games at Wembley and three poor to average teams to play in one of the weakest groups, it is about time England turned up.

Alan Shearer talking to BBC Sport:

‘We still haven’t conceded a goal in this tournament but we have also only scored once so far.

Someone has got to provide the creative spark if we are going to win on Tuesday and playing Jack Grealish would definitely help us there.

I know he came on for the last half-hour against Scotland, but that wasn’t enough time to impact that game.

If Grealish starts this time, he freshens up our attack and gives us that extra threat running at defenders that we saw so little of against Scotland – we did not get Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount on the ball like we did against Croatia.

One player who has to keep his place, though, is Harry Kane. Forget about leaving our captain and our leader out – he is the Premier League’s top scorer and also made the most assists, so to drop him now would be ridiculous.

He is proven at this level too as we saw in Russia three years ago. If we are going to go deep into this tournament, we are going to need him at his best.

We haven’t seen that from him at Euro 2020 but we know how good he is. Harry hasn’t looked sharp in our first two games and hasn’t scored either, but he’s hardly had a sniff of a goal so far because of the shortage of service.

One chance and one finish and that all changes. I am confident he is going to get better – and so are England.’

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