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England: Gareth Southgate needed to pick one more player to reach World Cup final - Dixon
ENGLAND lacked a creative midfielder to open up Croatia in their World Cup semi-final defeat in Moscow.
World Cup: Pundits react to England being defeated by Croatia
That is the opinion of former Arsenal and England defender Lee Dixon.
The Three Lions were beaten 2-1 after Mario Mandzukic struck for Croatia in extra time.
After dominating the first half of normal time, England struggled to create big opportunities to double their advantage.
And Dixon believes a player to play that final pass was missing.
think that’s what was missing tonight, the real killer pass to open them up
“I’m sure he’ll analyse it all,” Dixon said on ITV of Gareth Southgate.
“There were lots of positives throughout the tournament.
“The one thing we said throughout was ‘do we have that passer of the ball in midfield who can open up teams when it’s really tight?’.
“And I think that’s what was missing tonight, the real killer pass to open them up.
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“It’s easy to analyse it now and it would be wrong actually to analyse it now.
“This is the time for them to spend their time with the fans, who they’ve completely turned in their favour and everybody’s behind them.
“Semi-final before the tournament started, we would have said ‘absolutely’.”