Roy Keane has branded the England performance against USA at World Cup 2022 as "terrible" in the aftermath of the goalless draw.
England had just one shot on target in the entirety of the second half and struggled to break down the opponents throughout the game. Harry Kane said afterwards that the display "wasn't good enough" – but ITV pundit Keane was stronger in his dismay towards the players.
"We were surprised watching it," Keane remarked in response to why Phil Foden didn't come on as a substitute – especially after Gary Neville had earmarked him as the Three Lions' best player at half-time. "Gareth will have his reasons, he's the manager, he knows them better than anybody. But we were watching the game saying, 'you'd fully expect Foden to come on.'
"The options and the subs that did come on, they didn't really have an impact, I know they did well the other day. They looked leggy, they looked one-paced, they looked out of ideas, even set pieces you never felt they had a goal in their locker from that. Actually, terrible performance."
England's draw with the United States was a drab affair in which the Three Lions might count themselves lucky to have got away with just a point. Gareth Southgate's side started off holding onto possession nicely, taking the sting out of the United States press, with Harry Kane having the Three Lions’ first chance after nine minutes, which deflected out for a corner – a few minutes later, he wound up for a bicycle kick to connect with a Bukayo Saka cross but didn’t meet the chance.
But the US grew into it. England were given plenty of warnings with Weston McKennie chances before Chelsea attacker Christian Pulisic rattled the crossbar. The England defence weren’t quick enough to close down the United States forward line and when Pulisic cut in on his right foot, his effort from the edge of the penalty area looked as though it took a touch off Pickford before shaking the woodwork from a difficult angle.
The second half wasn't much better for the English. Harry Maguire had to clear multiple corners with his head up until the hour mark, with England struggling to get a foot on the ball, up until Jack Grealish and Jordan Henderson came on for England to replace Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham.
Before the game, much of the talk was about FIFA’s banning of the OneLove armband with ITV pundit Gary Neville condemning the governing body.
“It’s what I expect the FA would say, they’re a risk-averse organisation, always have been,” said Neville of the FA’s response to pulling out from the protest, “Doesn’t surprise me that FIFA have acted this way, they’re a rogue organisation and in this tournament, we’ve probably seen them at their worst. They don’t need to be that way, they represent world football – what’s an armband going to do to harm FIFA?”
