Gary Neville: England has disrespected the full-back position
By Sky News, July 1, 2026England has once again disrespected the full-back position at a major tournament, leaving them short of cover at right back heading into Wednesday, July 1, 2026, World Cup round-of-32 clash with DR Congo, says Gary Neville.
First-choice right back Reece James will be unavailable until well into the knockout stages of the tournament with a hamstring injury, compounding the earlier loss of his backup, Tino Livramento, who withdrew from the squad before the first game, also because of a hamstring problem.
All of which means England head coach Thomas Tuchel must now decide between Djed Spence, who has been playing left back for Tottenham and was selected in that position for this squad as cover for Nico O’Reilly, and versatile centre-backs Jarrel Quansah or Ezri Konsa for the knockout clash in Atlanta.
Neville, who played 85 times as a right back for his country, believes Tuchel should have foreseen this given James and Livramento’s injury records, adding it was an issue many had predicted would happen heading into the tournament.
Not going to work
Meanwhile, Neville has warned England about the upcoming threat posed by DR Congo, who progressed to the knockouts as one of the eight best third-placed sides after finishing behind Colombia and Portugal in a hugely competitive Group K.
It’s not the first time I have seen England disrespect the full-back position in the last 15 to 20 years. They have thought they can take one full-back and then someone else can fill in. That just is not going to work.
If you are playing against Vinicius Jr. in a quarter-final, or a France or Argentina winger, you are going to get turned over if you are not competent. Tuchel has got Djed Spence, who he rested the other day. I hope that’s because he needs to play the rest of the games.
But we are very thin on the ground. Livramento and James, with their injury record over the last few years – it shouldn’t have been a shock when their injuries happened. They haven’t been the most robust and resilient, and I feel for them because they’re very talented players and they’ll be hurting.
Tuchel should have seen that. Everyone in the country could have seen that with James and Livramento.
DR Congo challenge
Congo is going to be tough. You have to make sure you don’t concede counter-attacks. We’ve conceded a few in the last few games, and on another day, we would have conceded a penalty against Ghana. The one Ezri Konsa tackle, that’s a penalty.
Against Panama, they did not have quality, but they did have their moments where they countered through us. Making sure the Democratic Republic of Congo does not have counterattacks will be important.
We should never take for granted finishing top of our group.
These players have set such a standard over the last few years that we expect so much from them.
The performances against Ghana and Panama, and even Croatia, there were imperfections there,” he added.