Gary Neville believes there was “confusion” within Thomas Tuchel’s England squad that will start against Panama. The former Manchester United defender highlighted specific concerns regarding Jarrell Quansah being placed at right-back after Reece James missed the game through injury.
Fellow right-back Tino Libramento is out with injury, meaning James will be unavailable unless England reach the final stages of the competition. Tuchel opted to replace the Newcastle player with a centre-half rather than directly replacing him, bringing Trevor Chalobah into the group.
Jed Spence remains the only specialist in that role, but has been used primarily on the left wing by the German manager. However, the Tottenham defender was included in the substitute squad for the game against Panama.
Tuchel has shown his confidence in Quansah as part of five changes to England, who have already secured a place in the round of 32. The Three Lions still have to secure first place in Group L, with Tuchel leaning towards a bigger rotation in his squad than he had envisioned ahead of the World Cup.
Neville doubts whether Quansah will be available in that position during the knockout rounds and has also expressed concerns about Tuchel’s options for the role. “He’s making a lot of changes to it,” Neville said of the starting lineup. “He (Tuchel) said before the tournament that he wanted 14 or 15 starters, but he already has starter number 17.
“The only position I feel qualified to talk about is right-back and if you had told me a few months ago that Quansah would be playing right-back for England in a tournament, I would have said something went horribly wrong.” A five-word response tells you all you need to know about his opinion.
“He picked injury-prone players in Reece James and Librament. He didn’t bring in Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is clearly a player of world-class quality, and we can only guess why. That’s where we are now. England will get through this group and win this game, but there’s some confusion there.”
“Jed Spence is the only real option at right-back,” he continued. “Quansar playing there isn’t an option late in the tournament. So I think he probably did it today because he thinks, ‘Look, we can handle Panama, Quansar can play there, and Spence can play in the No. 32 spot.’
Roy Keane added: “When you start playing in knockout games you don’t need a jack-of-all-trades. You need a master in these positions. That’s going to be a concern going forward.”
