Graeme Souness says he ‘felt sorry’ for Jude Bellingham watching the England star toil in an unfamiliar position against Greece.
The Three Lions fell to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Wembley on Thursday night with Bellingham scoring his side’s goal to briefly pull England level.
With Harry Kane left out of the squad due to injury, interim manager Lee Carsley named Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon in a very attacking line up that played with little cohesion or control.
With Bellingham taking up a free role, occasionally the furthest man forward as a false nine, Souness believes the Real Madrid star was asked to play ‘completely out of position doing something he would have not enjoyed’.
‘Several times in the first half, you could see Bellingham getting isolated when trying to close down the Greek goalkeeper, with no-one joining him in that press,’ Souness wrote in his column for the Mail.
‘When you press as a collective, it’s like having a rope tied round each of your waists. When one goes, it pulls you in behind them.
‘There’s a reaction from the one at either side of you. But when Bellingham went to close down, the keeper was able to pass the ball around him because there was no one else in an England jersey joining in. The absence of anyone following him in told me that England did not know what they were doing.’
Souness sympathised for Bellingham and urged Carsley to revert to a system with a natural centre forward leading the line on Sunday against Finland.
‘I have to say I felt sorry for Bellingham. The central striking role he was playing is obviously not his position. He scores the vast majority of his goals arriving late in and around the box.
‘You only need to have looked closely at his goals for Real Madrid and England last season – and his goal on Thursday night – to know that. Ollie Watkins took up that role after an hour, though the system was so clearly not working that I think changes should have been made earlier.
‘If Harry Kane isn’t available, as he wasn’t last night, you start with a different type of centre forward. In this case, Watkins, who should have scored with his second touch after arriving on the hour mark, when Cole Palmer played him in.
‘Asking a talented midfield player to play as a centre forward made no sense. England should start with Watkins up front against Finland on Sunday, with Kane not fit.’
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