Topics: Cesc Fabregas, Cole Palmer, Chelsea, England, Gareth Southgate, Euro 2024
England fans think Cesc Fabregas nailed his analysis of Gareth Southgate's substitutions during the 1-0 win over Serbia at Euro 2024.
The Three Lions kicked off their Euros campaign with victory over Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday evening.
Jude Bellingham scored the only goal of the game with a superb header on 13 minutes, and England controlled the majority of the first half.
But Serbia improved significantly after the break, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic saw a powerful long-range effort tipped over by Jordan Pickford in the closing stages.
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England were inches away from making it 2-0 when Harry Kane's header was superbly saved by Predrag Rajkovic, and although they managed to secure the win and a clean sheet, there was criticism from some fans over the second half performance.
There were also question marks over the decision to leave Cole Palmer - the Premier League's Young Player of the Season - on the bench in Gelsenkirchen, although Jarrod Bowen did impress when he came on.
And Fabregas, who was working as a pundit on BBC for the match, appeared to agree with those assessments, stating: "If you send the message in putting in a defensive midfielder or an extra defender to cover the result you will, as a player, feel it.
"Mentally, you start going back, dropping more. But instead, if you put an offensive player, Palmer let's say, up the pitch and controlling the ball in the final third, I think the players get so much more comfortable."
Fabregas also gave his verdict on the performance of Manchester City star Phil Foden, who played on the left wing with Bellingham as the central attacking midfielder.
"They [England] allowed them to have the ball when they were deep once in the second half," he began.
"Straight away, when they started to get pressed a little bit more, we started to see Foden hitting the ball without looking, 40 yards.
"You'll never see Xavi, Iniesta, the top, top players in the last 15, 20 years, do that. You need to take this responsibility to grow."
