RIO FERDINAND has criticised Gareth Southgate for not being proactive with his substitutions against France.
The former England defender claimed Southgate let down the fans by being too reactive in the 2-1 quarter-final defeat.
Ferdinand pointed to players like Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish as subs who could have impacted the match.
But the pair were brought on with England trailing – Grealish given just two minutes in injury time to try to make a difference.
In fact, all four of Southgate’s subs were made after Olivier Giroud’s winner, and Ferdinand feels the Three Lions boss left it too late.
He said on his Vibe with Five podcast: “Our [England’s] substitutions is where I think Gareth Southgate let us down.
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“I think he’s been pitch-perfect, touch-perfect in almost every decision he’s made up to this point, but you get into a game like yesterday where this is really where it matters now, and I think Gareth Southgate came up short in the tactical element in terms of substitutions.
“That’s part of tactics, making substitutions, and in-game management and deciding games with substitutions at the business end of a tournament, I think he would hold his hands up maybe in retrospect
“Gareth, in the moment, wasn’t proactive with his substitutions, he was reactive.
“It hit 1-1 and we’re sitting there going ‘take the bull by the horns, make a substitution, get us on the front foot’. You’ve got Rashford, you’ve got Grealish who can go on, get us on the front foot and change this game.
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“You’re sitting there going, ‘It’s too late, man’. You’ve got to do this when we’ve got the chance of still winning this game and taking the game from them.”
France’s win sets up a semi-final clash against Morocco on Wednesday, with the winner taking on Argentina or Croatia in the final on Sunday.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
