England: Dixon slams Palmer for ‘putting brakes on’ in Japan loss as Three Lions duo ‘not done enough’ | OneFootball

Lee Dixon has hit out at two England stars after the 1-0 loss to Japan, with Chelsea star Cole Palmer “putting on the brakes” for Kaoru Mitoma’s goal.

After drawing 1-1 against Uruguay last weekend, England suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss to Japan in a friendly at Wembley on Tuesday night.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel experimented with Phil Foden as a false nine without Harry Kane, but this system did not work and England lost 1-0 despite dominating possession.

The Three Lions could not recover after Brighton’s Mitoma scored a breakaway goal to break the deadlock inside the opening 25 minutes, so Tuchel will have plenty to think about ahead of the World Cup.

Former Arsenal star Dixon was on commentary for the match and was not happy with Palmer for his role in Mitoma’s goal.

“Cole Palmer is going to lose the ball because he takes chances… not enough tonight,” Dixon said on ITV.

“But when he loses it in midfield, he’s got another job and that’s the chase back.

“He gets level with Mitoma, more or less, and then just puts the brakes on and lets Mitoma run away from him into the space.

“The pull back is perfect and it’s a really, really good breakaway goal for Japan.”

Dixon also does not think Foden did “enough” against Dixon, but he suspects another Man City star will “be on the plane” in the summer.

“I think Tuchel likes Nico O’Reilly, he’ll be on the plane,” Dixon added.

“The rest of them… I don’t know what to say, Palmer has not really done enough tonight, Phil Foden, again, the same.

“They haven’t got many games left to experiment with, have we? This is the last one before the warm-up games just before the World Cup and the squad being announced.

“It’s not worked [Foden as the false nine], there’s not doubt about that, so whether he preservers with it in his mind, that might be the case in the event that Harry Kane gets an injury.

“But certainly, I don’t think there’s enough in there that you go, ‘Do you know what? Let’s have a go at that’.”

After his side’s loss, Tuchel gave a firm response when asked whether the pressure of playing for England is proving too much for some members of his squad.

“No. I don’t think so,” Tuchel responded.

“I don’t want to engage in this discussion because I think it’s very clear what we want to do and how we want to play and focus more on principles, on the doing, on the thinking, what it means. It comes with pressure. It comes with noise, playing for England. That’s just how it is.

“We need to see how the players adapt to that and we can only see it if we try it, so we tried it and we have to learn from it.”