Alan Shearer insists Jude Bellingham “wasn’t happy at all” with how Gareth Southgate used him during the Euro 2024 final.
England lost 2-1 to Spain in Sunday’s final in Berlin, levelling through Cole Palmer after Nico Williams had given Spain the lead only to concede the decisive goal in the 86th minute when substitute Mikel Oyarzabal slotted home.
The Three Lions started the tournament in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Bellingham in his usual No10 role, but Southgate switched to a 3-4-2-1 for the victory over Switzerland in the quarter-final after a string of poor performances and maintained that formation from then on. Bellingham played on the left of an attacking midfield duo alongside Phil Foden.
Reflecting after the match on The Rest is Football podcast, ex-England captain Shearer said: “Bellingham wasn’t happy. He was stuck on the left again. You could tell he wasn’t happy at all.
“He had a disappointed look about him, his arms were up, he was looking towards the bench for guidance. He could see things weren’t going well and he wasn’t happy with the lack of press and everything else.
“He was showing all of those emotions. I could see it, I was looking at him all the time. He was showing it to the bench. He’s not a left midfielder, so I sort of understood his emotions. I was really surprised Gareth Southgate went back to four at the back.”
Shearer continued: “Our best 45 minutes of football in the whole tournament was when we played three at the back in the first half against the Netherlands.
“I thought he would go for that system again. It’s clear that Foden and Bellingham don’t want to play on the left in that system.”
Podcast host Gary Lineker added: “When we walked off the pitch today, we bumped into quite a few of the England players and they were all absolutely understanding [of the criticism they had received].
“They were disappointed and despondent — I won’t name any names because it’s not fair — but you could tell they weren’t happy with perhaps the way things went.
“The only times we saw England play attacking, aggressive football is when they’ve been behind, with the exception perhaps of two first-halves. But mostly they were sitting back and even at 1-1 tonight they started sitting again.”
