Micah Richards has responded after he and his fellow BBC pundits sparked some backlash over the weekend.
England faced Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarterfinals on Saturday (6 July) and while the lads did go on to win the match, refreshing our champion hopes, not everyone was particularly impressed.
After fans were left confused by Gareth Southgate pulling off a ‘double bluff’ with his side, the first half ended at 0-0 from not exactly the most exciting, or impressive, 45 minutes of football.
And this led to viewers being baffled by the BBC pundit’s half-time comments.
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The blokes seemed to be piling on the praise for the team as they highlighted how they could see a ‘difference’ in the Three Lions compared to other matches.
Gary Lineker labelled them as ‘terrific’ as Rio Ferdinand highlighted a ‘huge improvement’.
And Richards also said: “I highlighted before the game what Switzerland could do. England have just not allowed them to do the rotations, dropping into positions, playing the right passes.
"They’ve had no shots on target, Switzerland. So England are doing a really good job.”
A really good job without any goals, mind.
But even former England player Jamie Carragher slammed the pundits as he wrote on X: “On the BBC England are 2-0 up, on Twitter England are 0-1 down!”
Many fans echoed this as they said: “BBC pundits would make you believe England have been better than Barcelona 2011, despite having zero shots on target."
And David Baddiel chipped in: “The England team have been more positive but nothing like as positive as the BBC pundits.”
Richards has now responded to this criticism, as he said on The Rest is Football podcast: “We got a little bit of… I wouldn’t say stick, people were saying we were a little too positive for England.”
As Lineker said there ‘are always going to be people who will disagree’, Richards wanted to offer an explanation.
“OK terms of the first game, Serbia, we all had huge expectations of what England were going to do, they weren’t great,” he said.
"Then we had Denmark who were really organised. Then we had Slovenia and we see in their system, 4-4-2, they defend really deep in a low block, difficult to break down. Then we have Slovakia where of course last-minute brilliance from Bellingham and Kane wins it in extra time.
"When I said England were brilliant I’m comparing them to the previous four games. I’m not saying they were the finished article.”
He added that they ‘were in the emotion of the game at the time’.
“It was just a better performance.”
Well of course, it was good enough, as the lads are now into the semi-finals, come on England!
Topics: BBC, Euro 2024, Football, Gary Lineker, Sport
Jess Battison