Jude Bellingham’s comments after England’s win last night gave credit to the subs who came on and helped the Three Lions snatch a late equaliser and then a winner in extra time.
Cole Palmer was the first player to be introduced, and made an immediate impact putting balls into the box.
“Look at who came on there. We’ve won this game together. Not me, not Harry [Kane], not the individual moments where, you know, you look back on it in maybe a few years’ time and talk about the game,” Bellingham said.
“It’s the likes of Ivan Toney, [Eberechi] Eze, Cole Palmer and I could name all the rest coming on.”
💪 "We showed the character that England has missed in times before"
🔊 Get the sound on to hear from Jude Bellingham after @England beat Slovakia in #Euro2024 @GabrielClarke05 pic.twitter.com/GJgCBogqcI
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 30, 2024
Sub roles suit Blues off the bench
One player he didn’t mention was Conor Gallagher, who once again was England’s energiser off the bench. It was nice to see him back in action after his humiliating half time substitution against Slovenia last time out.
This team is barely functioning as a whole, so we certainly wouldn’t want to be a central midfielder like Gallagher, put in in a desperate attempt to get things to work.
But in fact this role as a sub coming in to raise the energy levels and try to shut down the opposition really works for him. As we saw in last night’s game, at that point the game is a little more broken, and Gallagher is at his best there, winning second balls and covering big spaces.
Last night he was basically a one man press, with 10 players sitting behind him.
Palmer also functions well as a sub – his risk taking means that he’s the kind of player you want coming on later in a game you’re chasing, and we’re sure we will see both of them off the bench on Saturday against Switzerland – unless of course a reshuffle gives one or both of them a start.
