Sky Sports
Jamie Redknapp has urged Gareth Southgate to stick to his attacking instincts if Dele Alli misses Saturday’s game with Sweden.
The Spurs midfielder was brought on for his club team-mate in the last-16 tie with Colombia on Tuesday night, with nine minutes of normal time remaining and England leading 1-0.
Dier went on to net the winning spot-kick in the penalty shootout which sent England through to the quarter-finals after the tie finished 1-1 after extra-time.
He was preferred to Ruben Loftus-Cheek off the bench but the change to the Three Lions’ approach left Redknapp feeling England had helped Colombia wrestle back the initiative before their injury-time equaliser.
He told Sky Sports: “Gareth Southgate has been really good in this World Cup, the only backwards step was maybe bringing on Eric Dier. Once he came on, I felt we lost the initiative a little bit. We sat back. Jordan Henderson had been looking so good in that defensive midfield role but started to push on. We started to make a couple of defensive errors and getting a bit edgy.
“A substitution like that can say to the players that we’re going to hang onto what we’ve got, and I think that can create a little bit of negativity. In this day and age, it doesn’t seem to work that well.
“But I understand why Gareth did it, it’s the first thought at the time that you’ve got to defend and hang onto what you’ve got, but I thought besides that England were very composed.”
Ahead of a quarter-final against a Sweden side known for their defensive quality, Southgate, who earned 57 caps for England and was part of the squad which reached the semi-finals of Euro 96, said he would choose against replacing Alli with Dier again should the former be ruled out with injury on Saturday.
He said: “We are playing against a Sweden side that will sit back, so do you want to bring in an Eric Dier? I think you’d be better off putting an attacking midfield player. I thought Ruben Loftus-Cheek caused Tunisia a lot of problems when he came on with his power, and I think he’d give the Swedes a lot of problems.
“The other ones you look at, [if} Ashley Young [is] not fit you’ve got Fabien Delph or Danny Rose. With Vardy, it’s a shame because he’s a great impact sub. You’d want him to come off the bench, although you’ve got Rashford as well.”