Former England international explains how Three Lions can avoid Slovakia upset

The retired Chelsea, Manchester City and England defender was pointed in his remarks about how the Three Lions have performed so far in the tournament, with Gareth Southgate's side topping Group C despite three lacklustre outings.

Speaking to Betfred ahead of the beginning of the knockout stages this weekend, Bridge didn't mince words when asked how England can prevent being defeated by their lower-ranked opposition.

“How can they prevent an upset? By playing better," Bridge said. "You look at teams like France and they’re not at their best yet but if you look at us at the moment, we just don’t seem at it. Hopefully we can start playing some good football and the most important thing is that we’ve reached the knockout stages, but we can’t carry on playing how we’re playing and go very far in the competition. We’d be very lucky if we did. 

"We need to concentrate on our own game more than anything and I know a lot of people have said this already, but we need to get Phil Foden in the number ten role. We’ve got the likes of Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer who can play on either wing and I’d stick Jude Bellingham next to Declan Rice. That would make other teams worry about us a bit more.

“When we’ve seen them in the first three games, it looks as if nobody knows what they’re supposed to be doing. I know Foden got slated in the first game but in the following two, he seems like the only one who’s passing the ball, running off it to receive it and at times he looked like the only player that was pressing. It all looked a bit static because when somebody was on the ball, there was no movement from the other players. We’ve got to worry about our own game a little bit before we worry about Slovakia. 

“Every game’s a tough game, so it’s going to be hard whoever we play.”

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