Bellingham alone won't win Euros for England - Desailly

By Sports Desk April 25, 2024

England cannot rely on Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham alone to win them the Euro 2024 crown, according to France great Marcel Desailly.

Bellingham has enjoyed a sensational debut campaign at Madrid that has seen him score 21 goals in all competitions and assist eight more.

Despite still being aged just 20, the youngster will already have the weight of a nation on his shoulders in the European Championship finals.

Desailly is a big fan of Bellingham, but he suggests Gareth Southgate may have to consider tweaking formation if England are to succeed.

"Too much quality can kill the quality," Desailly told Stats Perform. "This is your problem, you see? 

"All the players have to be able to perform at the same time and help each other. The Dutch have had this kind of problem in the past.

"The Dutch always have high levels of expertise, but every time it was difficult for them to all unite together at the same time and perform.

"The talent is there for England, even though Fabio Capello has said their defence is a bit weak, which I agree with.

"But too much quality kills the quality. Let's see how the coach is able to adjust the side and make certain choices.

"He may have to remove some of the players into a different tactical system to protect the team for the performances needed."

Bellingham's latest goal came in added time to earn Real Madrid a 3-2 win over Barcelona in a thrilling Clasico clash last weekend.

He is already being mentioned as a frontrunner to win this year's Ballon d'Or, which could depend on how England perform in the Euros.

The ex-Borussia Dortmund ace is also being likened to one of the all-time greats in Zinedine Zidane, but Desailly says there is a long way to go.

"In the game against Barcelona, he wasn't outstanding yet he was still key for his team," the World Cup 98 and Euro 2000 winner said.

"Carlo Ancelotti took Vinicius Junior off because he knew what Bellingham could give him in that position. 

"He also has the legs to defend and score the killer goal, or use his cleverness for the collective of the team.

"He's a good player. But trying to compare him to Zidane? It is difficult for us to accept he could be at that level.

"There are differences between them, but the potential of the talents is quite similar."

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