Gareth Southgate experimented with both a 3-4-3 and a four-man defence in England’s two Euro 2020 warm-up games against Austria and Romania, but reports have surfaced that he would prefer to start with three in defence in the opener against Croatia.
However, former Tottenham and Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, disagrees with that approach, and believes Southgate should play with four at the back in England’s opener in order to attack Croatia with a little bit more conviction.
“For me, you play with two centre-backs and concentrate on your midfield,” he told talkSPORT.
“I think to be offensive, you have to be in control of matches. How can you be offensive if you don’t have the ball? It is important to control that midfield and it’s more important to play with three midfielders.”
With that in mind, he’s selected an incredibly attacking 4-2-3-1 line-up, which includes the Harry Kane, as well as Chelsea stars Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell, whom he spoke very highly of.
But with focus on the England captain ahead of the Euros, Kane’s former manager said: “Kane is untouchable.”
England have one of the better squads in the competition and are confident about going all the way, with Kane having claimed the golden boot at the 2018 World Cup on route to the semi-finals, before being knocked out by Sunday's opponents.
However, the Three Lions have never won an opening game at the European Championships, a stat Mourinho believes the squad shouldn’t worry about, as they look to take revenge for that exit.
“Forget the negative record and just think about the game and think about winning,” he added.
It’ll be interesting to see how many of Mourinho’s XI make Southgate’s team come Sunday, but such a huge selection headache is a reminder of how strong this England squad is.
Mourinho’s starting XI: Henderson; Walker, Stones, Mings, Chilwell; Phillips, Rice; Grealish, Mount, Foden; Kane.
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