The 2022 World Cup is upon us and England will be hoping to lift the trophy for the first time since 1966 – but not many pundits are predicting that Gareth Southgate will bring it home next month.
Despite reaching the semi-finals in 2018, and losing in the final of Euro 2020, England go into the tournament on a bad run of form that saw them fail to win any of their six Nations League matches.
Key players like Harry Maguire and Raheem Sterling have been off-form, while Southgate lost Reece James to injury before naming his 26-man squad.
But England are still one of the favourites for World Cup glory and kick off their campaign against Iran on November 21.
We’ve rounded up what some of football’s biggest names have said about England’s chances of success in Qatar before the big kick-off.
Gary Neville
Asked who he thought will win the World Cup by ITV, Neville replied: “I’m going to go for England! They’ve gone from semi-final, final, runner-up and now they are going to go one more.”
He went on to say: “I think they are on a growth over the last few years and I don’t buy into this idea that the Nations League performances are them.
“They played four games in the middle of summer that actually nobody was stimulated by and I think the two games they played recently against Italy and Germany are tough games that you can lose in any single year.
“So, come the tournament, hopefully injuries won’t take too much of a hold and I’m going to go for England. If not England I’m going to go for France or Argentina.”
Alan Shearer
“I don’t see us doing what we have done in the previous two tournaments,” Shearer told the BBC. “Defensively we could struggle in the latter stages, against the big hitters.
“Harry Kane is the key, as he has been at all the tournaments we have done well at. If England are going to go deep in the tournament, he is going to have to score five or six goals again, and he will be looking to go back to back with World Cup Golden Boots.”
Asked to sum up England’s chances in one word, the former Three Lions captain replied: Intriguing – because I am intrigued whether Gareth Southgate is going to play four or three at the back, and I am intrigued who he is going to play with Kane up top.”
Ian Wright
“England have shown they can get to the latter stages of big tournaments – we have good tournament experience now and we’d do well to get to the semi-final stages again,” Wright told ITV, where…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…