Gary Neville has just made an interesting prediction about Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher ahead of the Euro 2024 tournament.
Conor Gallagher, along with Chelsea teammate Cole Palmer, is part of England’s 26-man squad competing at the Euros this summer.
England begin their group stages on Sunday night against Serbia. So, will Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate select either Blues player in his starting XI?
This is Gallagher’s second involvement at a major senior international tournament with his country, but he didn’t get any minutes during the World Cup in Qatar. Hopefully, he gets on the pitch and impresses for England this time around.
Gary Neville prediction about Chelsea midfielder
Gary Neville thinks that Chelsea’s Gallagher is primed to play a key role for England at the Euros competition.
He’s explained why he thinks the 24 year old central midfielder will emerge as a really important player in Southgate’s line-up as the tournament progresses.
Neville said on The Overlap: “I’ve got this feeling that he (Southgate) loves Gallagher. He may not throw him at us in game one because he might think that will set off on a negative tone of putting Gallagher alongside Rice with Bellingham advanced.
“Personally, the team I think he wants to go for, is that (Pickford-Walker-Stones-Guehi-Trippier-Rice-Gallagher-Bellingham-Saka-Kane-Foden).
“For me, I think where Gareth is going to end up, is to get that extra runner. The one that can go and take the ball off people because he’s (Gallagher) really good at that…. I think he wants him in, but I don’t think he’ll start to start with.
“I think he’ll put Trent [Alexander-Arnold] in on Sunday [against Serbia]. That will almost be deemed as an acceptable bridge between giving us Foden, Bellingham and Rice and what will be the more, it’s not as sexy is it Conor Gallagher, with respect.”
Conor Gallagher could be the surprise package
We don’t expect too many England supporters will be picking Gallagher in their best XIs going into the Euros, but he could actually have a big role to play in the next month.
Chelsea’s all-action midfielder provides the kind of work rate the England side may need to go deep into the tournament.
If you look back to England’s Euro 2020 campaign when they finished runners-up, Kalvin Phillips was a real star performer for the unsung work he got through in the centre of the park.
Gallagher is a slightly different profile to Phillips in midfield, but we agree with the prediction that Southgate may lean on him as an individual he can trust to carry out instructions on and off the ball.