Gareth Southgate must deploy Jude Bellingham in a man-marking role against Spain if England wish to triumph in the Euro 2024 final.
That’s the view of ex-Chelsea and Republic of Ireland striker Tony Cascarino, who believes Bellingham must freeze Rodri out of the game.
Should Southgate decide to put the Real Madrid star on the Manchester City defensive midfielder, it would be a new role for the 21-year-old at the European Championship.
Bellingham is expected to feature in a No.10 role for the seventh consecutive game in Germany in Sunday’s final – live on talkSPORT.
But talkSPORT presenter Cascarino has insisted Southgate should ‘sacrifice’ his attacking talent in order to reduce Rodri to scraps.
Speaking on the Euro GameDay Breakfast, he said: “In 1966 [World Cup final between England and Germany], it was quite clear that Bobby Charlton and [Franz] Beckenbauer were given individual marking jobs on each other.
“I’d want to put Bellingham on him [Rodri] and say, ‘Stay with him, but don’t make him go to places that are going to hurt us.’
“And he might have to sacrifice his own game, because I’d want to be doing a similar thing to him.
“If you stop him, he stops all the service. Now they [Spain] have got a brilliant midfield, [Fabian] Ruiz and Rodri in midfield are a real handful.
“With that, I don’t think England are going to face a better midfield, because that is a real difficult job.
“England won the game in midfield against Holland, they won that from that area, Bellingham, [Declan] Rice, obviously [Kobbie] Mainoo, the three of them, tremendous.
“OK, [Ronald] Koeman reacted to it and changed it around and got a better performance in the second half, but that was the engine room that was driving England on in the semi-final.
“This is a different midfield, you’re now up against a guy that doesn’t give the ball away, that’s a problem in itself.
“That means they’re gonna hog possession, they’re going to dominate possession, they have a totally different dynamic to most teams.
“They have two wide players in [Nico] Williams and [Lamine] Yamal, who are electric, and you have to stop that service to them two.”
Before adding: “You could say to Bellingham, ‘You just try and stop him, just make sure he [Rodri] doesn’t pass the ball to places that’s going to hurt us’.
“And that’s obviously the wide men, I think it’s a very important role, I don’t know why no one does a man-to-man marking job anymore, why is that redundant now in the modern game?”
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News Summary:
- England boss Gareth Southgate told to ‘sacrifice’ Jude Bellingham in new role for Euro 2024 final against Spain
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.