‘All wrong’: Roy Keane critical of Arsenal 24-year-old on international duty

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Roy Keane was critical of Arsenal defender, Ben White, for his defending during England’s 2-1 win over Switzerland in their international friendly on Saturday, as he told ITV Sport (26/03/22 at 11:05 pm).

The outspoken TV pundit stated that White’s body position during that passage of play was ‘all wrong’.

Breel Embolo opened the scoring at Wembley when ex-Liverpool man, Xherdan Shaqiri, whipped in a brilliant cross, only for White to misjudge the flight of the ball, get underneath it and allow his opponent to head home.

In defence of the Arsenal 24-year-old, some should look towards the likes of Luke Shaw, who allowed Shaqiri to whip in a cross and not stop the wide man from putting the ball into the box.

From that sense, White wasn’t helped out and it was touched upon by Keane when he discussed the Arsenal man’s defending.

“It really is tough (international football),” said Keane. “You are up against these tough teams and sometimes it’s these slight mistakes, which we will see for the goal.

“He just got caught out. It’s quality from Switzerland and they were on top, at this stage. We are criticising Shaw and people for not stopping the cross. People like Shaqiri, at this level, have produced many times before.

“As soon as it leaves his foot, White’s body position is all wrong. Embolo has got his number, he just got caught out. It’s simple as that. It’s a great finish and he got punished.

“You hope sometimes that you get away. But he has been caught out.”

White wasn’t actually selected to start the match because it was John Stones picked to play in a back three by Gareth Southgate.

But, the Manchester City man suffered an injury in the warm-up which forced a late change.

It was a day of changes for the Champions League-chasing player because he went from being on the bench to then starting.

Then, later on in the game, when Southgate changed from a back three to a flat back four, White was used as a right-back and was motoring up and down that wing in fine fashion.