Graeme Souness still talking about James Maddison and England ‘handbrakes’

Graeme Souness claims England were ‘operating with the handbrake on most of the time’ at the World Cup despite scoring 13 goals in just five games.

England exited the World Cup at the quarter-final stage after a 2-1 defeat to France but still managed to match Didier Deschamps for goals scored in the tournament.

England had eight different scorers with Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford both contributing three goals and Harry Kane coming within a missed penalty of joining them.

But Souness still claims that England were not adventurous enough and claims that England boss Gareth Southgate made a mistake in keeping James Maddison on the bench throughout the tournament.

‘It probably doesn’t bear thinking about for Gareth Southgate but if you were picking a composite team from either England and France or England and Argentina, you would find that most of those teams comprised a majority of England players,’ says Souness in his column in the Daily Mail.

‘You can’t say that either of Sunday’s finalists are better than England, man-for-man. It’s just that they have those two special individuals who have lit up games.’

‘If only England had been a little bit more adventurous in their football, it might have been a very different outcome.

‘I’m mystified why James Maddison, a player whose creativity and scoring stats stand out over everyone else they took to Qatar, was neither seen nor heard of. And don’t tell me Maddison won’t do the hard yards playing for England.

‘I’ve said all long on these pages that Harry Kane had to be the difference and without his goals it would be difficult for England because I didn’t see anyone else delivering in the difficult moments.

‘But Harry had a quiet tournament by his standards, while Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have been the game-changers for their teams.

‘England were proactive in the second half against France, when they were chasing things, but if they’d been on that front foot throughout, it might have been a different story.

‘Instead, the players were operating with the handbrake on most of the time. I just get that feeling they’ve blown a golden opportunity. The best shot they will have for years to win the World Cup.’

Souness also wrote that England should consider a foreign manager to replace Southgate, saying: ‘In an ideal world, it would be an Englishman managing England but you wouldn’t ignore a great candidate if one came up from somewhere else in the world. It…