Sven-Goran Eriksson Reveals How England Can Stop Mbappe

on December 5, 2022 at 1:54 pm

France’s Kylian Mbappe has been the star of this World Cup so far and England fans will be wondering how the team can stop the French forward.

Mbappe is only 23 years of age but he has already surpassed French icons Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry in terms of World Cup goals with nine to his name.

At this tournament the PSG star striker now has five goals and two assists which puts him on course for the World Cup Golden Boot and in contention for player of the tournament honours.

We caught up with former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson who laid out the plan as to how England can slow down Mbappe and this French attack in this Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final.

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How should England deal with Kylian Mbappe?

It will be very interesting to see what Gareth Southgate does to stop Mbappe.

France is not only Mbappe but he’s definitely their biggest threat. He can do something out of nothing.

His dribbling is fantastic but he can also finish incredibly well and I wouldn’t be surprised if England start with five defenders.

I think Southgate will play Trippier as the right wing-back and Kyle Walker will move to right centre-back.

They will need two players to track Mbappe but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was still a massive danger. His two goals against Poland were incredible. He more or less thundered it into the net standing still!

Jordan Henderson has proved many wrong with his displays, has he earnt the right to start against France?

Jordan Henderson technically is a very good player. He knows the game, has a lot of experience, is a runner and a hard-worker.

Yesterday he scored a fantastic goal but the run he did to score it into the penalty box was fantastic.

Henderson’s goal reminded me a bit of Lampard arriving into the penalty area late. He did that regularly and scored a huge amount of goals as a central-midfielder.

Is Olivier Giroud underrated?

No one underrates Olivier Giroud now, but he has been for sure overlooked during his career.

Everyone knows how dangerous he is with his head and with his feet. If you beat Thierry Henry’s goal record you have to be a special player.

England shouldn’t just focus on Mbappe but they have to look at the proven goal-scorer Giroud and look to nullify his threat too.

Would you consider Kalvin Phillips in the middle with Rice against France?

I don’t think you can play Rice and Phillips as well as a back five against France, that’s just too defensive.

If you can avoid a lot of crosses you will have done a good job. It’s also important that Gareth Southgate doesn’t forget his own style as well.

When England defend deep and counter attack they can hurt their defenders.

Who should start in attack against France?

Saka is very quick but I think Rashford should start ahead of him despite his goal against Senegal. I think France will have more of the ball so we need as much speed as we can get against them.

If we have Rashford on the counter we have a lot better chance of breaking and being more lethal on the counter so I’d have to go with Rashford, Foden and Kane against France.

Rashford is a runner with and without the ball, he has to play.