Manchester United great Rio Ferdinand claims Gareth Southgate 'froze' and got one telling decision wrong during the Euro 2020 final.
The Three Lions went into the final as the bookmakers' favourite, but England and millions across the country were ultimately left heartbroken by the penalty shootout defeat to Italy.
Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all missed from the spot as Gianluigi Donnarumma produced two stunning saves between the posts for Italy.
Southgate has been criticised in some quarters for allowing young players to shoulder so much of the burden in such a high pressure situation.
Ferdinand, however, believes that the defeat was the direct result of England's refusal to respond to changes made by Italy in normal time.
United defender Luke Shaw had given the Three Lions a dream start inside two minutes, but his strike was cancelled out by Leonardo Bonucci in the second-half before the Azzurri triumphed via penalties.
Speaking on his YouTube channel FIVE, ex-United and England defender Ferdinand said: "[Roberto] Mancini went into half-time and he used that 15 minutes better than Gareth Southgate did.
"He changed the personnel and he allowed his wide player, [Federico] Chiesa, to come more central in order to link up with [Lorenzo] Insigne, brought off [Ciro] Immobile and that's when you need a reaction from our manager.
"That's the moment in the game where you need the manager to go; 'You know what? I've seen this now, let me change things'.
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"For me personally, he changed the formation, but still didn't change things, didn't alter the running of the game, especially in the second half."
Ferdinand added: "We've gone over the hills and up mountains congratulating and applauding the manager for making decisions at this tournament, whether it be formation changes or personnel changes and this was a game where he was probably letting himself down in that sense.
"They did it in all the other games. In the biggest game, Gareth Southgate seemed like he froze and just thought; 'Let me just get to penalties and hope for the best'."
