JOSE MOURINHO believes Kyle Walker can be England’s secret weapon to help beat Germany.
The Three Lions take on the old enemy at Wembley in their Euro 2020 last-16 showdown this afternoon.
And ahead of the game, SunSport columnist Mourinho revealed the XI he would pick if he was in Gareth Southgate’s boots – with Walker chosen as a right centre-back to negate the threat of Robin Gosens.
The Manchester City star played in the wins over Croatia and Czech Republic but sat out of the Scotland stalemate with Reece James chosen at right-back.
Speaking on talkSPORT, the Special One said: “I would go to a back three, especially as England know how to do it.
“It’s not like Gareth wakes up yesterday and decides to play a back three. It’s something they did for the last two or three years.
“But they are playing with a back four, they did it with three consecutive clean sheets, which is very important and shows how solid they are.
“There’s a lot of options. With a back three you have two options, one with Kyle Walker and one without.
“If you want to go with Kyle Walker as a wing-back, which would be very good as he’s very fast, very powerful and can do up and down all day and can perfectly kill the Gosens supremacy on that side.
“Then the centre-backs would be John Stones, Harry Maguire and Tyrone Mings.
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“But James can play right-back no problem, he does it with Chelsea and then it could be Walker with Stones and Maguire in the middle.
“Left wing-back, playing in this back-three system normally has to be a left-footed player. That would not be adapted to Kieran Trippier.
“It would have to be Luke Shaw because I believe that Ben Chilwell will not be in the best condition.
“I would do Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice then Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.”
Southgate is expected to line up with a back three for the 5pm kick-off at the home of football.
Bukayo Saka may retain his place in the starting XI but at left wing-back while Phil Foden and Mason Mount may have to settle for spots on the bench.
Writing in his column for SunSport, Mourinho predicted the winner of this evening’s clash to reach the final on July 11.
Victory would see England take on Ukraine or Sweden in Saturday’s quarter-final with Denmark or Czech Republic in the semis.
Mourinho, who takes over as Roma manager this summer, said: “For me, England versus Germany is not a last-16 match, it is a semi-final.
“Whoever wins, I cannot see them failing to make the final.
“You must respect all of those teams as they are there for a reason but, for a big team like England or Germany, this is like a semi-final.
“Lose in the last 16 and you go home with a shadow over you. Win and you should go all the way — because the power is in the other half of the draw.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
