Wayne Rooney has told Thomas Tuchel how many changes to make to England’s starting XI for the World Cup quarter-final against Norway.
England are now preparing for Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Norway after getting past Mexico in the previous round.
Tuchel‘s side produced their best performance at the tournament to beat Mexico 3-2 at the Azteca Stadium, having finished the game with ten men after Jarell Quansah’s red card.
Without Quansah, Tuchel has a decision to make regarding England’s starting right-back against Norway.
Rooney thinks Tottenham Hotspur star Djed Spence should replace Quansah and has warned against selecting Ezri Konsa at right-back.
“For me, Djed Spence [should start],” Rooney said on his BBC podcast.
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“I don’t like to see centre-backs out there if I’m being honest. If you’ve got a right-back there, there’s a reason he’s been brought to the World Cup.
“He did really well against Croatia when he came on, Djed Spence, and the one game where he didn’t do that well was when he started at left-back.
“So if you’ve got a right-back there then, for me, you play the right-back.
“I’d probably go Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon after his performance and obviously the same two midfielders in Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson and Jude Bellingham just off Harry Kane.”
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Rooney later reiterated that he thinks England should otherwise stick with the players selected to start against Mexico in the previous round, but he has backed two background players to have a “big role”.
“I do think in the run-in for the next couple of games, to try and get to the final, he is going to need different players I believe because it’s going to be very difficult for all those players to play all the games to go to the final.
“Hopefully those players are ready. That’s my only concern.”
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When pressed on whether he would make any changes for the Norway game, Rooney continued: “It’s a difficult question to answer because I think what’s going to happen now, today, tomorrow, over the next two or three days actually, is they’re going to look at how players recover from what was a very difficult game.
“That will all be taken into account and if all the players have recovered well… obviously the right-back has got to change again which I think has been a problem for England in this World Cup.
“Other than that, I think Thomas Tuchel has been pretty open on this and that looks like his starting XI, with Nico O’Reilly, Ezri Konsa, Marc Guehi.
“I still think Ollie Watkins or Ivan Toney have got a big role to play at this tournament. I know Ivan Toney hasn’t played a minute…
“Now obviously with Jordan Henderson [being injured] you hope Kobbie Mainoo is ready in case anything happens with Declan Rice.”
