Gary Neville reveals his Euro 2020 'concern' for England and makes Maguire claim

Gary Neville admits he is ‘concerned’ by England’s ‘physical levels’ at Euro 2020 and says it is ‘now or never’ for Manchester United captain Harry Maguire to return to the side.

Gareth Southgate’s charge have endured a mixed start to the Euros, beating Croatia in their opening match but then drawing to Scotland, the third-lowest ranked team in the tournament.

England will still finish top of Group D if they beat the Czech Republic on Tuesday evening but Neville was alarmed by the team’s lack of ‘sharpness’ against Scotland and wants to see a response in their final group game.

The former England and Manchester United defender told Sky Sports: ‘The only thing that concerns me now is the physical levels, and I’m not sure why that occurred.

‘It’s one of two things: one, the players are very tired, and if they are then we’ve got a real problem. Or two, they were a little immature and mentally built the game up so much that they drained themselves.

‘My concern was that it wasn’t just the Harry Kane thing – the rest of them lacked sharpness. Even when [Jack] Grealish and [Marcus] Rashford came on, the performance didn’t change.

‘For me, going into the Czech Republic game – understanding that I have played with England teams in tournaments that looked fatigued – that is the only thing that I’m looking at in the first five, 10 minutes.

‘Is the sharpness back, and was it just a mental thing going into that Scotland game?’

Red Devils captain Maguire is yet to feature in the tournament, having suffered an injury setback while playing for his club towards the end of last season.

The 28-year-old declared himself fit for the Scotland match but was an unused substitute, and Neville believes he needs to feature against the Czech Republic if he wants to play in the knockout matches.

‘Now’s the time for some continuity – we need to start settling on a team,’ he added. ‘That might mean that Harry Maguire comes back in.

‘If he doesn’t play tomorrow against the Czech Republic, I don’t know how he can come in against a France or a Portugal in round two. It’s now or never for Maguire.’

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Neville has also backed Southgate’s stance on England striker Harry Kane after he insisted he would start against the Czech Republic, rejecting the increasingly loud calls for him to be dropped.

Kane is yet to score or assist at Euro 2020 and it has been suggested that the 27-year-old is being distracted by the speculation surrounding his future at Tottenham, although this is something he has denied.

Neville said: ‘I said last week I felt Kane was undroppable and I still maintain that.

‘I think that if Harry Kane had someone behind him who was even close to him that could go into the team, then you’d say maybe you could look at a change. But you wouldn’t change Kane quickly, or easily for that matter.

‘I think he’ll break all England’s records. You don’t just drop your captain and your main goalscorer after two matches.

‘But I think the energy, urgency and intensity in England’s performance has got to improve for Kane to do well in this tournament.

‘In the first game, we felt that was a controlled performance and everyone was really happy with that. But against Scotland, it was a massive drop off.

‘I don’t care who you are – as a centre-forward, you would have struggled in that game.’

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