‘The biggest positive from England’s point of view was getting to a semi-final,’ Neville said on The Peter Crouch Podcast.
Declan Rice during England’s World Cup campaign (Picture: Getty)
‘The reason I don’t think we should go overboard is if you told me before the tournament that England would get to the semi-final I would have snapped your hand off.
‘The squad he picked, I didn’t think it could get past the semi-finals and that’s what happened.
‘Jude [Bellingham] has been unbelievable, Harry’s [Kane] goalscoring the same. [Djed] Spence is a positive, he’s proven he can play at this level and defend one vs one.
England World Cup boss Thomas Tuchel (Picture: Getty)
‘For me, not having Declan Rice in the tournament which has effectively been the case… not having him is a massive problem.
‘Declan Rice fit and flying and running all over everybody… [Elliot] Anderson has been in there in that midfield pretty much on his own at times.
‘I love Declan to bits and he’s our best midfielder by a mile, but he’s been nowhere near it physically in the tournament.’
The Premier League title winner said: ‘This is the best England group for a very long time. That’s a fact. No-one can take that away from us.
‘I think we can be proud as a group – we are just gutted we lost in that semi-final.
‘We’re tired of saying we’re proud of coming in semi-finals and quarter-finals – we want to win with England ultimately. But to come third in this tournament is a real achievement.
‘We’re so close, honestly. There’s been so much talk about this group over the last few years going out of tournaments. There’s been semi-final exits, quarter-finals, finals.
‘I think we need to keep going. I do think it’s close. It’s a game of small margins. It’s football and the other night we lost on margins and in the boxes.’
