A draw was not the result Roy Hodgson’s England wanted in their first Euro 2016 group game, but there were a lot of positives to be taken from the performance against Russia.
The Three Lions go into Thursday’s highly anticipated clash with Wales knowing that failure to win the game could put a serious dent in their knockout qualification chances, especially if Russia are disqualified for fan violence.
But former England and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman has said he saw enough in the opening game to suggest Hodgson should stick with the same starting XI in Lens.
The 52-year-old, who was capped 75 times for his country and featured in the Euro ’96 team that reached the semi-finals, said the game against Wales is a must-win, but he was encouraged by the confidence the team showed in Marseille.
Speaking with 888sport, Seaman said: “No, I don’t think there needs to be any changes because we played well as a team, we had quite a few chances, their goalie made quite a few saves.
“Admittedly a lot of the saves were straight at the keeper which is bad luck on our part – he made a great save from Rooney. Joe [Hart] didn’t have a lot to do all game and then they score in injury time with the last kick of the game. It was a disappointing result but still a lot of positives in there.”
Harry Kane was the Premier League’s top scorer last season but struggled for clear chances on goal in the Russia stalemate. Despite proving that he can play the lone striker role for Spurs, there have been calls from high-profile ex-players such Paul Scholes to replace him with Daniel Sturridge for the Wales fixture.
But Seaman believes Kane should be given another chance to rediscover his lethal goalscoring form.
“I’d leave it how it is, see how it goes,” he added. ” I know a lot of criticism has been aimed at Roy for not changing or not using all his subs – the only change I might have made a little bit later on would have been to put Vardy on for Kane but that would have been it.
“All the other changes were spot on – you know he put Milner on in a defensive role, swap Rooney – he was looking a bit tired and was putting in a few loose passes. I thought Roy did everything ok so just needs to carry that on into the Welsh game.”
England will face one of the world’s best players in Gareth Bale in the standout game of Group B, and the Wales and Real Madrid star has had plenty to say on what he perceives to be a gulf in passion between the two nations.
However, as fas as on-the-pitch matters are concerned, Seaman doesn’t think Bale will be getting any special attention from the England defence.
He continued: “You know they’re coming up against a fantastic player. They’ve faced players like him before though and they’ll deal with him as needs be.
“Whether they give him special treatment, I wouldn’t have thought so because the back four will want to operate as a unit and they’ll deal with him like that if the threat comes.”
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