Former Liverpool star Didi Hamann has asked Gareth Southgate to drop Phil Foden, Harry Kane, and Jude Bellingham from his England squad, claiming none of the superstars have lived up to expectations in EURO 2024.
England have had an underwhelming EURO 2024 campaign. They started the tournament with a 1-0 win over Serbia, drew 1-1 with Denmark on Matchday 2, and capped off Group C proceedings with a goalless draw with Slovenia. Despite their sub-par displays, England topped the group with five points, setting up a Round-of-16 clash with Slovakia.
Hamann Challenges Southgate To Drop England Stars Kane, Foden & Bellingham
Like many of his peers, Hamann has delivered a critical assessment of England’s group-stage performances. He asked Southgate to take a bold call and axe star trio Kane, Foden, and Bellingham from his starting XI against Slovakia.
Speaking to RTE, he said (via TeamTalk):
“If you stick to these big players and they clearly don’t perform, I think there’s a case to drop them. I think there’s a case to drop Foden, Bellingham, and Kane.
“As a manager, if you want to get the respect of the whole squad, you have got to go after the big boys. If you go after the small boys, people won’t respect you. I think he’s at a stage now where the public have lost faith in him, the pundits have lost faith in him and England, and the team have lost faith in him as well.”
Hamann added:
“I think the biggest problem is; they’ve got Foden and Bellingham in the same team. It clearly doesn’t work, but he hasn’t got the bottle to drop either of them.
“I think he’s got to take one of them out, or move Bellingham a bit further back, but he doesn’t want to do this because for some reason he thinks Bellingham has to play in a position behind Kane.”
Lastly, he name-dropped a few players who could fill in for the underperforming England stars.
Hamann concluded by adding:
“If he drops one of the two, that gives him a chance to bring Palmer in, bring Gordon in, bring Eze in, whoever. You’ve got so many players. Jarrod Bowen came on last week and set up the chance for Kane and he doesn’t do it.”
If the Three Lions overcome Slovakia in the Round-of-16, they will face the winners of Switzerland vs Italy in the quarter-finals.
