Roy Keane accused Declan Rice of being overly sensitive to criticism prior to England’s turgid display against Slovenia.
Gareth Southgate’s side limped through to the last 16 of Euro 2024 as Group C winners, but only after another turgid display.
A goalless draw was enough to get the job done as England benefited from Denmark’s failure to beat Serbia.
It was, however, another uninspiring performance from Gareth Southgate’s side who struggled to penetrate Slovenia’s low block, just as was the case against the Danes last week.
England had been heavily criticised for their lack of cohesion and were accused of looking lethargic in that 1-1 draw which led Rice to accuse the media reaction of being overly negative.
He said: ‘We’re talking like we’re going out of the tournament here. We’re top of the group, we need to stay positive, stay upbeat. Let’s have some positivity going into games.
‘Let’s give players the best confidence in the world. Players like Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, tell them they’re the best players in the world. Make them read that and think ‘I’m going to go out there and perform and give it absolutely everything’, rather than reading the negative comments sitting on their mind and then thinking that they can’t play a certain way.
‘That’s the way I think about it. And I’m sure we have enough of them people as well which is good.’
Unfortunately for Rice, who earlier in the tournament had been branded ‘overrated’ by his former Ireland teammate James McClean, England were only marginally better last night against the team ranked 57th in the world.
Speaking prior to the game, however, Keane took issue with the Arsenal midfielder’s perception of the criticism he and his team had encountered.
‘The modern player seems to be a bit more delicate to criticism, the former Manchester United captain told ITV Sport.
‘I know there’s more of it because of social media particularly, but again these players… I judge players by actions.
‘And we know how quickly football changes. If England put on a good performance or win tonight. Declan Rice is talking about, ‘show some love’. Listen, come on, it’s serious stuff. This is football stuff. People have made huge sacrifices to travel.
‘You get the love back when you perform. We all played at a decent level and when things are going great people are patting you on the back, but the reality is if you’re not performing you get criticised.’
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