DIER: WE’LL STAY ON FRONT FOOT

ERIC DIER insists England will not alter their approach to stifle Croatia as Gareth Southgate plans to name an unchanged team for the third successive game. Southgate may have been tempted to drop either Dele Alli or Jesse Lingard in place of the more defensively minded Dier as England look to cope with brilliant Croatia midfielders Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic and the dangerous attacking pair of Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic. But Southgate, who has Jordan Henderson available following a hamstring injury scare, is ready to stick with the attacking plan that has served his side so well so far. Dier said: ‘We never want to be reactive, we want to be proactive. When you play against stronger opposition it is natural to do defensive work but that doesn’t mean that we change our style or we change our mentality. Our style is to play on the front foot. Why would we change now, given how far we have come playing as we do?’