Anthony Gordon celebrates with Declan Rice after combining for England's openerplaceholder image
Anthony Gordon celebrates with Declan Rice after combining for England's opener | Getty Images
Player ratings after England defeated Costa Rica 3-0 in their final warm-up match before the World Cup.
England put in a reassuringly competent and confident performance against Costa Rica on Wednesday night, cruising to a 3-0 win after the start of their warm-up match against Orlando was delayed by the storms that threaten to become a recurring feature of the World Cup.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel changed his approach slightly, moving from his usual midfield double pivot to a 4-3-3 system with Elliot Anderson as the anchor while Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham were asked to push wider, creating overloads on the wings as England exploited the flanks to dominate possession and territory throughout. It worked wonders, and Costa Rica never came close to threatening an upset.
With just a week to go before the opening group stage game against Croatia, it was a fine team performance that will have soothed some jangling nerves among the fans – and perhaps within the squad itself. But who really impressed as they push for a place in the starting line-up – and who was simply along for the ride? We’ve rated every player who started for England along with the substitutes who put in more noticeable performances.
England player ratings vs Costa Rica
Jordan Pickford – N/A: There’s no meaningful way to rate Pickford, who didn’t have a single save to make, although a wayward pass from the Everton man did lead to Costa Rica’s only effort on goal which was blocked before it could come back to bite him.
Nico O’Reilly – 6: The less said about the shot from near the centre circle which came close to hitting the corner flag, the better, but aside from that particularly inaccurate effort O’Reilly played a rock solid supporting role to Rice and Anthony Gordon down the left flank. It wasn’t a game which gave him too many opportunities to truly shine, either as a defender or in the final third.
John Stones – 6: If playing Stones and Ezri Konsa alongside one another was intended to give them both a chance to audition to start against Croatia, it failed – Stones’ match readiness simply wasn’t tested out, and he didn’t make a single clearance, tackle, interception or block because he just didn’t have to.
Ezri Konsa – 7: Konsa actually did have some work to do, and seemed to end up on the spot on that rare occasions that Costa Rica did come forward into England’s half. The Aston Villa man handled his light (but at least existent) workload with ease, and even teed up a couple of shooting chances. The winner of the Stones v Konsa battle, not that their scrap for a starting space provided much usable data.
Reece James – 5: James was arguably the only England player to look a little out of sorts. He started the game by clumsily bundling Josimar Alcócer and went on to lose four out of his five one-on-one duels while struggling to offer meaningful support to Noni Madueke and Jude Bellingham further up the field.
Declan Rice – 8: Given a more attacking role than he is perhaps used to, Rice shone and his double act with Gordon decided the game. Rice barely had any defending to do but his passing was accurate and incisive and he earned his somewhat fortuitous opening goal.
Elliot Anderson – 8: Deployed as a true holding midfielder rather than as a box-to-box player, Anderson offered a rock solid base for possession and shut down everything Costa Rica tried to achieve on the counter. He forced seven turnovers of possession, made all three tackles he had to make and gave the opposition absolutely nothing to work with. Anderson’s understated role was a fine advert for Tuchel persisting with a 4-3-3.
Jude Bellingham – 7: Bellingham wasn’t quite as heavily involved as he might have liked but looked very sharp when he did get on the ball, and it was his sublime through ball to Madueke which set up the evening’s worst miss. His close control and intelligent movement gave England plenty to work with, but it tended to be Madueke who got the chances when the ball came down the right.
Anthony Gordon – 9: The big winner from Wednesday’s match, the newly-signed Barcelona star scored a spot kick, brilliantly created Rice’s opening goal, and won another admittedly soft penalty which was later overturned by VAR. His directness, dribbling and ability to exploit tight space in behind the defence gave Costa Rica a pounding headache, and he compelled the opposition to substitute starting right-back Shawn Johnson at half-time.
Noni Madueke – 6: Madueke would have scored very highly indeed if we were only rating his approach play and his quick feet created several openings, even if his habit of cutting inside every time was a little bit too predictable – but it’s impossible not to shave some points off for missing a gaping open goal having done the hard part after taking Bellingham’s through ball round the goalkeeper. A bad miss, but he won’t have done too much damage to Tuchel’s opinion of him.
Harry Kane – 7: If there was one criticism of England’s adjusted system, it was that they failed to find ways to turn threatening wide overloads into chances for Kane in the penalty area. Sat deeper in his accustomed ‘quarter-back’ role, the Bayern Munich man laid on some beautiful passes but could perhaps have been closer to the opposition six-yard box more often.
Ollie Watkins the best of the bench
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It would get tedious very quickly if we gave every England substitute 6/10 and noted that they knocked the ball around nicely enough without doing anything especially noteworthy, so we’ve only handed out a few ratings for players whose work deserved a different kind of review.
Ollie Watkins – 8: The big winner from the bench, Watkins was exceptionally lively and in many ways offered England a better attacking outlet than Kane as he took up a more advanced position. Made up for missing a very presentable chance when through one-on-one with the goalkeeper but showing superb reactions to nod in a rebound for the third and final goal.
Marcus Rashford – 7: Clearly keen to show Tuchel that he, like Gordon, could take a full-back on and turn them inside out, Rashford’s late cameo was busy but ultimately fruitless, even if he did provide a timely reminder that he’s an excellent ball-carrier at his best. A good, if short, performance, but he was ultimately outshone by his rival for the left wing role.
Morgan Rogers – 5: Rogers’ hopes of dislodging Bellingham look rather bleak now, especially after he missed an excellent opportunity when he knocked a shot wide after Kane slid him through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. A bad miss, and he wasn’t able to find ways to get himself meaningfully involved either side of it.
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