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Following the UEFA Nations semi-final between the Netherlands and England in Portugal, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville subtly took aim at West Ham United's Declan Rice and the rest of England's midfielders.

What's he said, then?

Rice started in a midfield three under Gareth Southgate in just his third competitive international appearance, playing between Manchester City's Fabian Delph and Chelsea's Ross Barkley.

The Three Lions took the lead with a Marcus Rashford penalty early on at the home of Vitoria Guimaraes, however, late sloppiness led to extra-time, three conceded goals and a place in Sunday's third-place play-off rather than final.

Here's what Neville had to say on Rice and the England midfield to Sky Sports:

"The superficial mistake is that Stones has made the bad decision. The deep, embedded problem for English football and England teams is that they had no options to play through midfield, and that is a bigger problem than the individual error.

"Until we have players who can receive the ball on the half-turn, it's so critical. Individual errors are the issue, but gluing together the back to the front in midfield is the biggest thing. Not just this England team, but England teams for 25, 30 years."

Way wide of the mark, Gary

This statement is clearly a sly dig at the ability of Rice, given that he is the player tasked with shielding the defence when his team doesn't have the ball and converting defence into attack when they do have it.

And if the popular pundit was actually watching the 20-year-old midfielder last season, he would have seen that Rice is actually one of the best in the Premier League at receiving the ball on the half-turn.

The blame for Southgate's team tumbling out of a second semi-final in a row can't even slightly be laid at Rice's door, or the rest of the midfield for that matter, especially when experienced players like John Stones are making utterly calamitous errors.