Gary Neville says Arsenal star was a 'massive problem' for England at the World Cup

Man Utd legend and ex-England defender Gary Neville (Picture: YouTube)

Gary Neville

has explained why

Arsenal

midfielder

Declan Rice

was a ‘massive problem’ for

England

at the

World Cup

.

England were dreaming of ending 60 years of hurt out in the United States but

suffered a semi-final defeat to Argentina

Thomas Tuchel

’s side had one foot in the final after taking the lead against Argentina, only to

concede two late goals in a heartbreaking defeat

Tuchel has

faced huge criticism for England’s approach in the semi-final

, although he did lead the Three Lions to their best World Cup finish since 1966 after

winning the third-place play-off against France

Neville is wary of being too critical of England given he never expected the team to reach the final even before a ball was kicked.

The

Manchester United

legend also believes Tuchel was hamstrung as Rice, one of the most important members of his squad, was

only half-fit and then suffered a bout of sickness in the knockout stages

‘The biggest positive from England’s point of view was getting to a semi-final,’ Neville said on

The Peter Crouch Podcast

Declan Rice during England’s World Cup campaign (Picture: Getty)

‘The reason I don’t think we should go overboard is if you told me before the tournament that England would get to the semi-final I would have snapped your hand off.

‘The squad he picked, I didn’t think it could get past the semi-finals and that’s what happened.

‘Jude [Bellingham] has been unbelievable, Harry’s [Kane] goalscoring the same. [Djed] Spence is a positive, he’s proven he can play at this level and defend one vs one.

England World Cup boss Thomas Tuchel (Picture: Getty)

‘For me, not having Declan Rice in the tournament which has effectively been the case… not having him is a massive problem.

‘Declan Rice fit and flying and running all over everybody… [Elliot] Anderson has been in there in that midfield pretty much on his own at times.

‘I love Declan to bits and he’s our best midfielder by a mile, but he’s been nowhere near it physically in the tournament.’

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While ‘gutted’ about the semi-final defeat to Argentina, Rice insisted he was ‘proud’ of his England teammates after they

secured a third-place finish at the World Cup

The Premier League title winner said: ‘This is the best England group for a very long time. That’s a fact. No-one can take that away from us.

‘I think we can be proud as a group – we are just gutted we lost in that semi-final.

‘We’re tired of saying we’re proud of coming in semi-finals and quarter-finals – we want to win with England ultimately. But to come third in this tournament is a real achievement.

‘We’re so close, honestly. There’s been so much talk about this group over the last few years going out of tournaments. There’s been semi-final exits, quarter-finals, finals.

‘I think we need to keep going. I do think it’s close. It’s a game of small margins. It’s football and the other night we lost on margins and in the boxes.’

England’s semi-final opponents

Argentina face Spain in the World Cup final

after the European champions knocked out France.

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