England off to a flyer as Bellingham and Kane take centre stage

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2:07Alan Shearer:hello and welcome to the rest is football with me gary lineka in today's show we're joined by not only alan shearer michael richards joe cole and harry mcguire but french world cup winner the great Patrick Vieira. We'll be discussing England's cracking start to the competition. And don't forget, if you'd like to watch the show, just go to Netflix. We're on every day. Can you tell us what it feels like to win a World Cup? I think you're never going to find out. You're never going to know. You're never going to know.

2:44Come on, Pat. Come on. Tell us, please. As England fans, we're just yearning for it so much. It will take too long to explain the feeling and the proudness. And we were lucky because he was in France.

2:57Alan Shearer:Yeah. In home country. So it's something quite really special. Yeah. I can only begin to imagine. We got fairly close.

3:07Gary Lineker:We were lucky that we got beat off Argentina on penalties, or we might have won it as well. Yeah, well, if we... Or maybe not. Big ifs.

3:14Alan Shearer:Big ifs. we'll talk about the other games today but we've got to start with England haven't we what a promising start

3:23Gary Lineker:Fabulous I thought there were plenty of positives in the first half too but there were also negatives in terms of the defending but I thought the second half was really really encouraging I thought the changes the manager made were really positive really really positive and I thought there were some very very good performances and it was a brilliant start for England.

3:49Alan Shearer:Michael, obviously we all had concerns about selections. Did it start to make sense, the way England played today, perhaps some of the people that have been omitted? With... LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER I'm saying we don't need a success.

4:07Gary Lineker:Let me pull that knife out there. You see what happens, you know what I mean? You've been nice to him and that's what he does to you. That's me on the pod every single week. No, but in terms of Jude, I mean, come on. We had a debate, didn't we? And it wasn't a debate, but Morgan Rodgers, we talked about. Fantastic player. But big game players, Jude always delivers. I talked about the pressure of Real Madrid and then translating that to England. It always turns up. And it's not just his goal he scored. I think his work rate, his intensity was absolutely brilliant today. I like the fact that when Kane was coming really deep, Bellingham was going in behind, Gordon too.

4:47I thought Madweke was good as well on transition. I'm just absolutely buzzing because there's too much negativity. Look at him, look at him, look at him. He can't help, he can't help it, can't it? I'm not saying he's coming home yet, Pat. But in terms of a positive... How do you say that in French? It's coming home. It's coming home. He arrives at the house. The house. The house. The house. Excuse me, is that it? Excuse me! La Coupe a la Maison? La Coupe a la Maison. OK. But it was just positive, wasn't it? It was a really good performance. I think for the first game of the big tournament like that, you can say that it was a lot of question marks on England, and they answered it quite well.

5:31But you don't want to build too much excitement. But we always do that! Yeah! That's what we do! Straight away, he's gone the English drop. And I don't want to take it away. It was a huge performance, and it was a really good performance. I think it was one of the best performances so far in the World Cup. At the same level than the French teams, I would say, than Argentina. But there's still a long way to go. So if England play France now, who do you think would win? That's a real question. Of course it's a real question. The teams to beat is France. There's no doubt about it. I think they're the best team in the competition, and I believe that they will go to the end and to win the World Cup.

6:12But I think that England, with what they showed to this first game, can hurt France, yes, but not win it.

6:22Alan Shearer:A lot of the big players have started the tournament very quickly and you mentioned Jude Bellingham. So let's start with Jude. He became the youngest European player in history to make an appearance at four different major tournaments. UEFA, Euros, FIFA, World Cup. aged 22 and 353 days. Indeed, 57 % of his England goals have come at major tournaments. Four of seven, the highest ratio of any player with five-plus goals for the three lines. He's a big game player, isn't he? He's got that mentality. We're talking about Morgan Rodgers and do you play him, do you not play him? You have to play him in games like this.

7:02And Pat will tell you, the personality of the players, when you're going out there in a big game, you look over and you see you've got Jude Bellingham, you know he's going to produce something at some moment. For me, it was never even in doubt. And I think, like I said to you earlier, Minks, if England do win the World Cup, Tuchel's going to go, yeah, I poked the bear there early on, I wound him up and then get a performance out of him. Do you think he did it purposely, though? I do, yeah. I do. Do you? Because I think, remember the last Euros, there was talk about Jude, was his personality right?

7:33Was he, you know, was things like that? And I think what Tuchel's done is for, let me just put him in his place a little bit and put the team first above Jude. And Jude's responded how I thought he would. You know, been in the match. You wanted Morgan Rodgers to start, why? No, no, no, honestly.

7:55Gary Lineker:Obviously, because... No, no, but I understand why, because he's a top-quality player. But why would you pick him over Jude? What was your reasoning behind that? My reason was because England had qualified or had played really well under Thomas Tuchel with Morgan Rodgers in the side. And Thomas had always said he's going to be loyal to the players that have helped get England into this position. So that was the reason why I sort of said that. I've never denied that. He's an incredible player. And I have no problem with him starting ahead of Morgan. The good thing is, I thought, is that the way he sort of switched it and was really...

8:34Gary Lineker:His substitutions were really refreshing for me because they were really positive at a really sticky time of the game. He could have went all defensive, but he went, no, I'm not having none of that. And he made really positive substitutions. And those played a huge part in England winning the game. Jed Spence came on. He could have scored, but for a really good save. Morgan Rodgers came on more than played his part. Saka came on, set another sub up. Rashford, who came on, scored the wonderful goal. So I thought his substitutions were, at the right time, were absolutely fantastic and can be really encouraging going forward.

9:12Gary Lineker:Because I think, judging by what he said after the game and his attitude, I think that's the way he's going to go. He's going to say, this is my way. I'm going to be really positive. You either like it or lump it. Whether I'll win this competition by being positive or not. and it'll backfire. But I thought everything he did to do was spot on.

9:33Alan Shearer:You can see there's a plan there. Yeah, definitely. I think I was really impressed with the second half. The intensity, I think Croatia struggled to keep up with England. I think the first half, the first game of a World Cup is always the most, I feel the most pressure, the most nervous the lads will be. So I think five or six players in that team were playing the first World Cup. So I think the first half, I think you've seen it a little bit with France as well. Like you don't want to come out all guns blazing and you do play with that tiny bit of fear. But what the manager said at half time in terms of, I think H said after the game about, he said, if we're going to lose, you lose our way.

10:13And I think that took the fear away from the players. And I think the second half, they went on and dominated the game. They could have won by a lot more. Can I just ask you tactically, Tuchel, what's it like when he... What does he want from the players? Because we've seen all this movement with Bellingham going in behind, Kane going really deep. But how tactically astute is Thomas Tuchel? Yeah, I think tactically, I think a lot of people looked at the squad he picked and thought that we were going to sit in and play on the counter attack. But I thought it would be the opposite. I think we've got four lads in the back, four who all want to build up.

10:45I think Picks today was really calm. really, really calm under pressure. I think the two in centre midfield want to take the ball. I think the wide wingers is big on pressure and counter press. So I think we're going to build up, but I think the flip side of it, I think we're going to do high press and I think we're going to press in their half. And I think you've seen that today. I thought the pressure and the intensity, I think it's the best we've seen in England recently. Harry, can I ask you, early on, when Harry Kane was dropping deep and Bellingham was in a number nine position, do you think that was something that was worked on or something the boys just sort of...

11:18Yeah, definitely. I think it's worth it. I think, listen, H is our best player. He's one of the best players in the world. So you've got to build your team around H. I think we've seen at the last Euros, you had everyone coming to the ball. And when H picks up that ball in the midfield, it scares defenders. Defenders don't know whether to come and go.

11:37Alan Shearer:That's H for Harry Kane, not the guy in line of duty. Sorry. I want to ask you about England's intensity because I was sitting next to you watching the game. You were quite impressed with that side of things, playing to England's strengths. Yeah, because I think this reflects the Premier League. You know, I think the strength of this group of players is to play with the intensity, try to score goals going forward and try to win the ball as high as they can. And then I think that with the quality of players that they have with Gordon and Maduike on the right hand side i believe this is a transition players so they need space to to to express themselves so of course going to try to win the ball higher when they win it the other teams are not have time to really reorganize themselves defensively so there will be situation where they will be in the one the one and that is the strength of of england and the profile of the players that they had um i think that is is refreshing like alan was saying earlier on to see England with positive attitude and try to dictate the tempo of the game and to win the game.

12:53And I think the tempo was so high and Croatia was quite really good on the ball in the first half. But the intensity was so high that I think in the second half physically they dropped and then England went to dominate and create those situations and score those goals. But if they manage to improve that defensive side, I think that will be quite a really difficult team to play against.

13:14Alan Shearer:I think it's quite notable that England adapted around the way that Harry Kane plays. Did you do something similar to that when you won the World Cup, maybe with Zinedine Zidane? Did you build him around? Yeah, you have to win the World Cup. Your best player has to play at the best. And we talk about Bellingham. He has to... England will not win the World Cup if Bellingham is not at the top of his... Can I ask you a bit about Jude? Because obviously you were a box-to-box midfield player. I mean Jude I think I watched him today at times he was playing as a 10 which is where he's put in at times he was a 9 he played as a 6 at times you saw him tacking his own box he was up and down like an 8 he's got that all-round sort of game that that you had yourself to a degree yeah I think he's got this this kind of power and fitness to really get running all around the pitch but sometimes I have the feeling that he's losing too much energy yeah and sometimes I have the feeling that he can choose when is the best time to make those kind of run or to run with the ball.

14:14And I think like one or twice he get the ball on his feet and he run. And I think he's losing too much energy. I think he can be more dangerous if he keep controlling himself and to control his energy and get into the last third. I think he's somebody who can score more goals, so making more assists and have more impact in the England games. But today I think he's part of the 2-3 best midfielder in the world.

14:41Gary Lineker:You know, I thought today one of, if not the biggest thing, because England have sat for six or seven days watching everyone else play. Yeah, long wait, long wait. Harry Kane, Messi, Mbappe, Haaland, all come on and go straight away and go, boof, get their goals. so for him to come in and get the goals as he has done I know there's the talk about the first one the penalty miss keeper did come off your line so it had to be retaken but then from a mental side of things there are a million things going through your mind on that second penalty trying to second guess what the goalkeeper is going to think but for him to stay so strong and think no I'm going to the same side here as the keeper saved it was really strong and he's obviously been listening to you because you asked him to keep this guy relevant and he's now...

15:31Gary Lineker:Honest! He's now level. And it's only a matter of time before you break the record. I've got his stats. Let's get the stats up, please. I want to see the stats. Come on, H, run the stats, please. Where's the camera I'm talking to? H, thank you so much. Just one more to go, please. And then this guy becomes so irrelevant. Thank you.

15:54Alan Shearer:Can I make a little point on this? I'm absolutely delighted that Kane... Oh, stop the nonsense, Gary. Look at your celebration. I'm still ahead on alphabetical order. And that's all that matters. I know we have a laugh and joke of it, but that is amazing for you, Gary, to be there. Well, it's more amazing for Harry than me. I don't want it all right.

16:22But on a serious note,

16:26Alan Shearer:I mean, welcome to the double figures club. It's great. I mean, it may have taken him a World Cup more. You see, this is why we don't give him praise on the show. This is why. I mean, I have to say, in all seriousness, Harry Kane is, I think, the greatest English striker we've ever had. I genuinely think that now. I mean, 80 goals. Alan's not even in the... Are you shaking your head there, Ron? Did you see Alan in that top ten anywhere? He was in your roles, didn't he?

16:58Gary Lineker:Look at the numbers. Look at the number. It's the record in the Euros.

17:06Alan Shearer:Harry, you know him well, obviously. Did they not call you H as well? Yeah, we both. You both call him. Confusing. Honestly, you can't speak hard enough. On the pitch, he's unbelievable. But off the pitch, he's a massive leader. Even little things about his penalty, what he missed today. I know that he'd have studied that keeper and knows that if you stutter, he'll come off his line. little things like that h will he sort of went straight away didn't he appealed i know you would know that straight away because i know what he does with his penalties i don't want to give too much away but he practices them every single day but he's finishing his technique is passing he has absolute everything this episode is brought to you by wise it's only when you start moving money between currencies that you really think about the exchange rate the fee, and what might be hidden away in the small print.

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19:15Alan Shearer:The one thing I noticed talking about, Harry, because we know he drops deep and we had a lot of conversations in the Euros two years ago about the fact that we didn't really adapt to that because when he dropped, so did everybody else and we couldn't get out. And I don't think Harry was anything like the condition he is in for this World Cup. I think he was carrying a back injury. But Tuchel seems to, he's worked that out and that's obviously why he's played these high-paced, high-up energy wingers to run past him and Jude Bellingham to go past him as well when he drops deep. All the things you wanted to see from the game, you saw from Thomas.

19:51And I think Thomas has gone in and gone, right, Harry Kane's our best player. And then he's built the team around him. Managers sometimes, some managers want to build it from the back four, the goalie and that. He's gone, right, Harry's my best player. What does he need? He's gone to Bayern Munich, scored 61 goals. He's got runners all around him and he's gone, right. And that's probably why Foden and Palmer are not there. Because he's thinking, I need Gordon, I need Rashford, I need Saka and Maduaki. One's going to start the game. The other two are going to finish the game. But Harry Kane, the only problem we've got is if Harry gets injured.