Roy Keane slammed the ‘bad decision-making’ from West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice and the poor goalkeeping from Everton’s Jordan Pickford during England’s World Cup exit to France on Saturday.
The outspoken TV pundit felt that Rice shouldn’t have gone to ground and Pickford should have saved Aurélien Tchouaméni’s long-range strike which opened the scoring for the world champions in Qatar.
Kylian Mbappe came cutting inside England’s midfield, with Rice trying to tackle the PSG star off the ball, only for him to skip past, and feed the ball out to the right channel, which was then played back to Tchouaméni near the edge of the area, as he unleashed an outstanding effort to open the scoring.
It was a moment of sheer brilliance from the Real Madrid star, and in the end, it proved to be costly in England suffering more World Cup heartache.
But Keane, ever the one to knit pick at every detail, felt Rice should have stayed on his feet as Mbappe tried to dance past him, whilst Pickford needed to do better in between the sticks, as he told ITV Sport.
“England are a bit stretched,” said Keane. “From Gareth’s point of view, there was just one or two bad decision-making. Rice going to ground. You have two or three midfielders back in there (inside the penalty area).
“It was a brilliant strike. The keeper, could he do better? I think so. But they have to go out to the shot quicker and more aggressively.”
PENALTY HEARTACHE FOR ENGLAND
It wasn’t a penalty shootout that knocked England out of a major tournament – for once – but those dreaded penalties just couldn’t stay away.
With less than ten minutes left on the clock, Harry Kane had an ample chance to level the scores, only to find that his spot-kick has landed back at Hotspur Way.
It was a moment that will still be replayed in the Tottenham striker’s head again and again because England were the better team on the night, they just didn’t have the ruthless nature to put the game to bed.
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