England star told he ‘won’t play again’ at Euro 2024 as Shearer calls for three changes for Slovakia
Gareth Southgate watches his side during a Euro 2024 clash
Didi Hamann doubts Conor Gallagher will play for England again at Euro 2024 after being substituted at half-time in the 0-0 draw against Slovenia.
Following Gareth Southgate’s failed experiment using Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield in their opening two matches, the England boss gave Gallagher a chance from the start in their final group match against Slovenia.
But it was one of the worst 45 minutes of the tournament as England struggled to get out of first gear with Chelsea midfielder Gallagher replaced at the interval by Manchester United youngster Kobbie Mainoo.
England were clearly better in the second half and former Germany international Hamann doesn’t expect to see Gallagher playing for England again at the tournament.
Hamann told RTE: “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.
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“Some of the substitutions you can’t follow, you don’t know what he’s thinking.
“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.
“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.
“Gallagher isn’t or wasn’t a problem. He’s not the problem of that England team.
“It’s probably too late now. If you go after the lesser players, it doesn’t look good on the manager, and that’s what he’s done in the tournament.
“He’s taken Alexander-Arnold, he’s an easy target. Gallagher comes off at half-time. We probably don’t see Gallagher again for the rest of the tournament.”
After watching the goalless draw against Slovenia on Tuesday, Alan Shearer has called for three changes to Southgate’s line-up for England’s last-16 clash against Slovakia.
Shearer said on BBC One: “He [Southgate] brought Mainoo on at half-time, I thought the other subs were left far too late.
“But all three had an effect on the game which is what they needed. I thought Mainoo was really good, he came into midfield and offered something totally different in midfield, winning the ball back, creating the option to receive the ball.
“This guy [Palmer] came in on the right hand side and looked really, really good. He had a big impact, his movement and confidence with the ball was brilliant.
“[Their combinations] we haven’t seen too much of that at all in the first two games, we certainty didn’t see it until Palmer came on.
“You can see that passing forward with someone receiving it in a forward position. Then Gordon came on with three minutes. The three linked up really well.
“We saw more on that left hand side in those three or four minutes when Gordon came on than we’ve seen in the two or three games we’ve had.
“Absolutely no doubt about it, Gareth has to make changes, particularly on either side and definitely one in the middle of the park.”