John Terry has questioned Gareth Southgate's approach to England's draw against the United States and his failure to play Phil Foden.
The Three Lions laboured to a goalless draw at the Al Bayt Stadium on Friday to leave their World Cup fate undecided. Southgate's side will progress to the knockout stages of the tournament if they avoid a heavy defeat to Wales in their final group game on Tuesday.
Southgate rewarded the team that thrashed Iran 6-2 on Monday by naming an unchanged starting XI against the US. His decision to leave Foden on the bench raised eyebrows, as he brought on Marcus Rashford, Jordan Henderson and Jack Grealish instead.
Former England skipper Terry was stunned by Foden's absence against the US and has admitted he would've done things "differently" if he was the manager. "This was always going to be the toughest game in the group," Terry told beIN Sports.
"I always thought it was going to be England, America then anyone else after that. But it’s still disappointing, especially after the way we played in the first game. Disappointed we’ve not got on the scoresheet at all tonight.
"Disappointed with some of the tactical changes, very negative from our point of view. I’d love to see us be more aggressive and we spoke about Gareth, can he learn from his mistakes previously and those kinds of things?
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"Personally, I would’ve done things differently and how we’ve not seen Foden on the pitch tonight is beyond me. He’s one of our best and biggest talents, I’d love to see him on the pitch. You throw him and Jack Grealish on, Rashford and those guys, it excites people, gives the team a lift. These guys are big, big stars and they need to play football."
Several critics have questioned Southgate's decision to leave Foden out of the team. The 22-year-old has been in great form for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City this season, scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 14 Premier League appearances.
"We didn’t have that same zip [as vs Iran]," said Southgate. "That’s going to happen, it’s tournament football, we’re not just going to roll through and sweep through everyone where you have nights like that where you need to show different qualities to get a result.
"We thought it was the right thing to do, to keep the team from the start, and then the wide players we went with Jack and Marcus ahead of Phil on the changes. We thought, Jack would keep the ball well for us and get us up the pitch and Marcus' speed, we thought would also be a threat coming into that last part of the game."
Southgate must now decide whether to stick with the same 11 players for England's deciding group game against Wales. Robert Page's side need to beat the Three Lions at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium to have any chance of qualifying for the last 16 of the tournament.
Wales conceded twice in added time to suffer a 2-0 defeat to Iran on Friday. "It will be difficult now, but we have to try to beat England - it's as simple as that," said Gareth Bale.
