BBC pundit Chris Sutton has slammed Gareth Southgate’s ‘strange’ treatment of Manchester City star Jack Grealish after he came on as a late substitute for England at the weekend.
On Saturday, the Three Lions were sadly knocked out of the 2022 World Cup as they lost 2-1 to France in a painful defeat. Indeed, Harry Kane missed a penalty having scored an earlier effort from the spot, as goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud were enough to see Les Bleus through.
Despite England desperately needing a goal, manager Southgate did not opt to bring Grealish off the bench until the 98th minute of the game, which has prompted some questions from Sutton.
Indeed, while talking about the loss on BBC Radio 606, the pundit said: “I mean, the oddities about last night, thinking about it… Jack Grealish going on for seconds, essentially – that was a bit strange.”
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TIF Thoughts on Jack Grealish and Manchester City…
Seeing as Grealish is quite literally a £100m attacking talent, it does seem as though he could be a handy option to have on the bench to change the game when a goal is needed to keep your team in the World Cup.
Evidently, though, Southgate had more faith in other options, and so only turned to the Man City star at the death. In fairness, though, he has netted just one goal in total this term at club level, so it’s not as if he’s been in amazing form.
However, he did have a goal to his name with England in Qatar, so it was perhaps a bit odd to bring him on with so little left on the clock to actually make a difference on the night.