Declan Rice believes that England’s game plan to stop Kylian Mbappe was perfect against France and shows why Gareth Southgate should remain the manager.
There are now questions over whether Southgate will quit the job after seeing his side lose 2-1 in the quarter-final of the World Cup.
He has had the public backing of several players, including Harry Kane and Harry Maguire, alongside the Football Association (FA) itself.
However, Southgate will take time to reflect as England fly home from Qatar on Sunday morning following the defeat at Al Bayt Stadium.
Rice, who started all of England’s games in Qatar, believes the defensive display against the competition’s top scorer shows why Southgate should remain.
“If you guys could come in and see how well everyone’s been on it, you would have thought we would have gone the whole way but for me, personally, I hope he stays,” Rice said.
“There’s a lot of talk around that [whether he quits]. I think he’s been brilliant for us. I think there’s a lot of criticism that’s not deserved. I think he’s taken us so, so far. Further than what people can expect.
“Tonight, he got everything spot on again, it’s not on him. It’s not on him at all - the tactics were right, and we played the right way.
“We were aggressive, we stopped Mbappe, he was quiet. Ultimately, like I said it was two goals against the run of play and that’s not down to the manager, it’s down to us on the pitch.
“I really hope he stays because the core group that we’ve got and what he’s made for us, it’s so special to be a part of, I love playing under him and I love playing for England.”
England had the eighth youngest squad in Qatar with the likes of Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka particularly excelling across the tournament.
The pair excelled in the defeat on Saturday night and Rice thinks that they leave the country with a bright future.
He said: “I think there are so many players here that 19, 20, 21 who are stepping up on the biggest stage, As a neutral, there is a lot that you don’t know what goes through a footballer’s mind on the pitch in a game of that magnitude.
“We really handled the occasion well tonight. It’s just two goals that you don’t really see us concede, a second-phase delivery from a cross - we are usually so good on that, we’re well organised but [Olivier] Giroud has got in.
“The first goal was a shot that you can’t really stop. So we’re obviously gutted but listen, we’ll go again.
“We’re England, the mentality has changed now as I said, and we’ll be back for sure.
“I think you can see on my face right now I’m distraught because we really believe this year that it could be a year.”
Rice also accepted that many supporters will be furious and believe that this is a missed opportunity with Morocco and Argentina or Croatia to come now for France in their run to retain their World Cup title.
“I think sometimes the negativity surrounding will go away once we have won something again,” he added.
“I think there will always be that pressure on us but I feel like it’s starting to sway that way that we’re getting back to a level where people are believing in us and the country is backing us.
“A few years ago it wasn’t like that, so we can be really proud of ourselves as a group. But we need to go again because ultimately international football is based on what you win, we haven’t won for years so that is what we want to try and do it.”
