Darius Vassell says ‘shining example’ Bellingham can learn from Alli and Lingard mistakes; issues England warning ahead of France clash

Darius Vassell gives his verdict on Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final between England and France, and picks out a couple of key players that have helped the Three Lions cause.

You can click on the link to read part one in which he talks about his penalty miss at Euro 2004 and don’t forget to check out Ladbrokes’ free-to-play half-time quiz on Friday and Saturday when you could win a grand!

Bellingham can learn from Alli and Lingard mistakes…he’d be a ‘great fit’ at Manchester City

Jude Bellingham is a credit to the system that we have in place when it comes to producing young footballers. I, in fact, work with one of Jude’s coaches from back when he was a kid, so he’s spent a lot of time with Jude and his development. I always ask him how it feels to see him and where he’s at now. He tells me that where he’s at now isn’t where he’s going to be… he’s convinced he can go even further, and that’s just great to hear.

We’ve got so many good players coming through the English system, and Bellingham in particular is a shining example to teenagers about just how far you can go in a short space of time, so fair play to him. I just think we need to give him a little bit of room to improve so that he can go out and achieve even bigger and better things, because he’s a great prospect for us.

It’s so important we handle Jude correctly. You can use 2018 as an example when we started games with Jesse Lingard and Dele Alli in midfield, and while I’m not taking anything away from those two, because they’re still great players, great young individuals. But when you look back at it, I think we expected both players to go on and take their careers to the next level, and that’s the position we’re in with Jude now, so it’s vital we handle him and his development in the right way.

We do suffer a little bit in the Midlands, because the majority of top, top players tend to be shared between the north and the south. So I certainly have a little bit of pride when it comes to Jude. I don’t care that he has come from Birmingham and I’m an ex-Aston Villa player – it makes you feel good that our area has developed such a huge talent.

Jude is such a talented and grounded individual. I don’t think he’ll have any problems with settling in at any club in the top four in the Premier League. In terms of his own development and what would suit him best, I do think he’d be great at Manchester City. Obviously it’s a club that’s close to my heart, and I’m not saying he wouldn’t succeed at, say, Liverpool. I just think that with the players they’ve currently got, and the identity of the club, Jude would be a great fit. They constantly strive to be the best, and bring the best players in – there’s so much ambition around the place, it makes sense for me to see Jude playing there in the next few years.

My warning to England ahead of World Cup quarter-final… from someone who lost to France in 2004

That game against France in 2004 was an emotional rollercoaster for me, and what it taught us as a team was that you just can’t afford to switch off against a side like France. We were in control of things and had three points in the bag heading into injury time. Your opponents may not have had a good game, but at that level, it just takes one player in that team to make a difference, and it only takes a couple of seconds to produce a bit of magic – and on that night it was Zinedine Zidane.

That’s the biggest lesson I took from that night, and I think it’s one which our players should remember on Saturday, too. You can’t switch off for one minute. It only takes one minute – one second, even – for things to switch. It’s a message I’m sure Gareth Southgate will have drilled into his players in preparation for this tournament.

I’ll always back England and I want to back us to beat France this weekend. I’ll give France the respect that they deserve as a top, top team, and I believe it’ll be a tight game which could well go to penalties. I want to believe that England will win, and I think that if everyone believes in this team, then we’ve got a better chance of getting the result.

France are a quality outfit, and if I take my patriotism away, I can see the game finishing as a draw in 90 minutes, which would mean extra-time and potentially penalties. Obviously if it goes to penalties, it’s really difficult to predict what’s going to happen.

If you’re an England player and you’re looking for positives going into this game on Saturday night, I think there’s a lot of motivation to take from the fact that we’re not coming up against a team known for keeping many clean sheets. They’ve conceded in every game so far this tournament, so we know they’re likely to let in goals – maybe that’s because they set up to be so attacking, but we have one of the best records in Qatar up to this point for goals scored, so that has to give you confidence heading into Saturday night.

I’d use that as motivation for my players, that, and the fact that we’ve already seen so many top teams leave the competition. I don’t think it matters that Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Karim Benzema aren’t available, because the guys who have stepped in have their own motivation.

Jordan Pickford deserves a lot of credit for job he’s done in Qatar

I’ve been really impressed with the clean sheets we’ve managed to keep in this tournament. I really like the goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, not that it’s just down to him, but he made a key save in the opening few minutes against Senegal which, if they had scored, could have meant we were looking at a completely different game.

The saves he has made at key moments and how confident he has looked in those one-on-ones, I think he’s done really well in leading that back line. Those clean sheets are so key as we progress further into the tournament, because you need to maintain that belief that you’re not going to concede.

I know everybody has picked out Jude Bellingham as the main man, and rightfully so, but I just think the entire team have stood out so far. They’ve all performed above 7 out of 10 so far, and I just want to give a special mention to Pickford in goal because having a safe pair of hands behind you instils so much confidence in you as a squad, and that’s what we have right now.