- England will face Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 on Saturday
- Micah Richards has sent England boss Gareth Southgate some tactical advice
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Micah Richards has sent England manager Gareth Southgate some tactical advice ahead of Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland.
The Three Lions have been unconvincing in their first four games of the tournament and came within seconds of elimination against Slovakia in the round of 16 before Jude Bellingham‘s stunning 95th-minute equaliser.
Harry Kane then completed the turnaround and England went on to beat Slovakia 2-1 after extra time.
But those goals came from England’s only two shots on target and Richards wants to see Southgate’s side be more attacking this weekend.
Switzerland confidently beat Italy 2-0 in their last match but Richards – who was capped by England 13 times at senior international level between 2006 and 2012 – believes the Euro 2020 finalists have the players to ‘hurt’ the opposition on Saturday.
Switzerland have so far opted to play a 3-4-2-1 formation and Richards believes that England should be looking to make life difficult for the two central defenders on either side of that back three.
Speaking on Gary Lineker’s The Rest Is Football podcast, Richards said: ‘Tactically, I’m looking at this game. I’ve been looking at the Switzerland games and there’s areas in that team in which you can hurt them.
‘If I’m looking at this England team now and you’ve got [Fabian] Schar – and Schar’s a very good player – but he does not want to be going into wide areas of the pitch.
‘The same for [Ricardo] Rodriguez on the other side as well. I think Southgate, if he’s looking at this, he has to play wingers.
‘He has to play [Bukayo] Saka or Cole Palmer on the right and he has to start with [Anthony] Gordon.
‘On transition, once you beat their press, you can hurt them. And I’ve seen videos of it.’
Richards was then asked by Lineker if he thought Southgate would agree with his tactical analysis and opt to attack Switzerland with wingers.
He replied: ‘No, I don’t. I don’t think he will. I think we need to be careful of how we set up. Because their wing backs are used to playing this formation.
‘So what you don’t want is to play 4-3-3 and for Saka and Foden, if they start, to come really deep because then they will box you in. Then you can’t get out and they will dominate the game.’
Saka has started in all four of England’s Euros game so far this summer, while Palmer and Gordon have only been used as substitutes.