Roy Keane slammed the "delicacy" of modern footballers following Declan Rice's request for fans and media to be more positive in their appraisals of England players.
The ensuing days have resulted in a heated back-and-forth between players and media over the nature of the criticism. England captain Harry Kane came out to defend the team in the wake of uncensored comments from Gary Lineker, while Rice found himself beseeching fans and media for more positive dialogue to encourage the team.
But Keane vehemently disagreed with the Arsenal midfielder, blasting his sentiments while on punditry duty ahead of kick-off on Tuesday night. "You get the love back when you perform. We all played at a decent level and when things are going great people are patting you on the back, but the reality is if you're not performing you get criticised."
“We are all so desperate to do the country proud,” he said. “We are all so desperate to win, to be leaders, to go out there and give people memories for lifetimes and sometimes I maybe feel like we put too much pressure on ourselves where we could just go out there and let it just take care of ourselves.