Jose Mourinho believes Jude Bellingham is a better option in the England midfield than Declan Rice and Kalvin Philipps against Czech Republic in tonight’s Euro 2020 clash.
Rice, Philipps and Mason Mount have started both of England’s Euro 2020 games to date but Mourinho would change things up for the final group game were he in charge.
Mount and Ben Chilwell are unavailable for the clash due to the close proximity they had post-match with Scotland’s Billy Gilmour, who has since tested positive for coronavirus.
Former Spurs and Chelsea boss Mourinho would not only replace Mount in the heart of midfield but also drop Phillips as well.
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Mourinho wants England manager Gareth Southgate to put his faith in Jack Grealish and teenager Jude Bellingham for the winner takes all clash.
“I believe in this nature of match it is better to have Bellingham than to have Rice and Phillips at the same time. Both are playing well but England now needs something different,“ Mourinho told talkSPORT.
“When a team lacks confidence, is playing with fears and caution, you have to play the one that doesn’t hide and the one that doesn’t hide is Grealish. He can make his mistakes, he can lose the ball but he doesn’t hide.
“He wants the ball. I don’t know if he vocally says ‘give me the ball’ but if he doesn’t he does it by body language. Against Scotland, in the last ten minutes he got two or three free-kicks, he got the team up, he tried, he got kicked, he created stability.
“I believe in this moment England need something like that. If Mount is out it’s easy, you play Grealish as a number ten. Give him the freedom to go to the sides, especially to the left but give him the freedom to go next to Harry [Kane] too.
“I would play Grealish behind Harry and Bellingham in midfield. It’s a difficult decision because it is not easy for us coaches to leave out players you are happy with but between Rice and Phillips, one that has to stay out is probably Phillips. So Rice, Bellingham and Grealish.“
If Mourinho got his wish then Rice would be under enormous pressure to protect the backline with little in the way of midfield support, a job former England manager Glenn Hoddle is confident the Hammer can do.
“Rice is a must, intercepting and tackling and doing that job,“ Hoddle told Betfair.
Another former manager Graeme Souness was less complimentary about Rice when referring to him as a “one-dimensional holding midfielder,“ in The Times, however, the Scot would still have the West Ham man in his team for the crunch matches.
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“It should be either Kalvin Phillips or Declan Rice as a defensive midfielder, but not both together. They are steady Eddies but there is no real cuteness to their play,“ he wrote.
“Phillips has more to his game, he is more of a threat, he has a cuter pass but will not sense danger as much as Rice does.
“It could be a case of horses for courses. Rice for the stronger teams and Phillips, who gets forward and contributes as we saw against Croatia, in games where England have more possession.“