World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why England lost against Belgium

#2 Fresh setup loses midfield battle entirely

England v Belgium - Group G: FIFA World Cup 2018 — Dier found it tough to negotiate with the midfield duo of Fellaini and Dembele

This was only bound to happen. As opposed to England's midfield comprising of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph and Eric Dier, Belgium had Marouane Fellaini, Mousa Dembele, Tielemans, Thorgan Hazard and Adnan Januzaj though the latter two were playing in a more advanced role.

But Fellaini and Dembele proved to be far too experienced for Dier and co as they kept the ball with relative ease.

In fact, they were dominating the aerial duels and were also quick to latch on to the loose balls. However, England would have been a much different side if they had the likes of Henderson, Jesse Lingard and Dele Alli.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Amar Anand