England manager Gareth Southgate revealed that he felt the qualities of Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish were better suited than Phil Foden’s to change England’s fortunes against the USA.
Gareth Southgate said: “We didn’t have that same zip [as against Iran]. That’s going to happen, it’s tournament football, we’re not just going to roll through and sweep through everyone where you have nights like that where you need to show different qualities to get a result We thought it was the right thing to do, to keep the team from the start, and then the wide players we went with Jack [Grealish] and Marcus [Rashford] ahead of Phil [Foden] on the changes. We thought, Jack would keep the ball well for us and get us up the pitch and Marcus’ speed, we thought would also be a threat coming into that last part of the game.”
Southgate later claimed in a press conference that Foden wasn’t brought on in a more central role because he is unfamiliar with playing centrally for City.
