Gary Neville hailed Jude Bellingham for spearheading England’s World Cup group win – but demanded his teammates step up for the knockouts.
England had long spells in their final group game against Panama when they were disjointed, lacked incision and looked vulnerable on the counter-attack.
It took talisman Bellingham to step up to ensure England reached the knockouts as group winners, scoring and assisting in the second half.
His goal was a moment of pure quality, tussling with a defender as a corner delivery came in before flicking his left foot out to guide into the back of the net.
The assist for Harry Kane’s record-breaking goal was also from the same grade, exhibiting exceptional wing-play to get a cross in from the left for Kane to head past Orlando Mosquera.
Speaking on ITV after the 2-0 win, former England and Manchester United right-back Neville dubbed Bellingham as England’s best player before urging his teammates to take note and step up ahead of Wednesday’s last 32 tie against DR Congo.
‘Absolutely,’ Neville replied when asked whether Bellingham is England’s best player by a distance.
‘He’s the one player who looks like he’s in form, who’s fresh, sharp, lively. He’s played at the level you’d expect.
Gary Neville delivers high praise for Jude Bellingham
Bellingham lead England to top spot
‘The rest of them are going to have to get to his level and form quite quickly. Thomas Tuchel said we will step up for the bigger games – they’re going to have to.
‘From being a defender in that position, you are pressing against the forward, looking to do enough to disrupt him and put him off.
‘How Jude kept control and his eye on the ball and the technique to finish is absolutely brilliant.’
Neville’s former United teammate Roy Keane and ex-Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright both joined the Bellingham love-in.
‘I’ve always backed Jude,’ Wright added. ‘What we’ve seen him do, what he’s capable of doing. He’s confident.
‘The fact he has a lot of confidence, people kind of interpret it as arrogance. But he’s someone who plays exactly the same no matter who he plays against.
‘He goes for it and wants to do the best he can. He wants to put the team on his shoulders and run with it. He relishes it.’
Keane said: ‘Arrogance, confidence, whatever you want to call it. You can’t be critical of him because he backs it up.’
Keane’s kind words did not extend to England manager Thomas Tuchel, however.
The outspoken pundit did not hold back in his post-match analysis on ITV, criticising Tuchel for failing to settle on his strongest XI.
Roy Keane reckons Thomas Tuchel ‘doesn’t have a clue what his best XI is’
Roy Keane and Gary Neville argue Thomas Tuchel’s England must step up
England have made seven changes across their three games in North America, five of which came for Saturday’s win over Panama.
‘The top players eventually turned up in the second half,’ Keane said. ‘The opposition were really poor, so we could be critical of England if they didn’t get the job done – but they did.
‘They move on to tougher games. As much as there were pluses from some of the star lads today, the manager has done a lot of chopping and changing. I don’t think he has a clue what his best XI is. That’s not good.’
‘I don’t think Thomas Tuchel will be walking off the pitch thinking it’s perfect right now,’ Neville added.
‘We’ve got to get Declan Rice back in the team. We’ve got to get the back four more solid. It looked like they cut through us a few times. They didn’t have the quality to punish us, but we are going to have to step up.’
