Move over Alli, Lingard is the new Lion king

IT was more instinctive than one of those funnyhandshake routines with Paul Pogba.

Cleverer than the socialmedia wizardry that occasionally lands him in trouble. He did not mistake anyone for a barber who had been summoned to his hotel room.

And if we knew whether or not he was still with his model girlfriend, she would have approved.

There is always plenty going on in Jesse Lingard’s world. He seems a fun-loving lad, that’s for sure.

But the quick-thinking moment he released Jamie Vardy for the goal that gave England the lead is what Lingard the footballer is all about. It was not just a quickthinking moment, it was a game-changing moment.

That is why Lingard has now got the jump on the young man recently described by Mauricio Pochettino as the best 21-year-old in world football.

And that is why Old Trafford star Lingard, as it currently stands, will be one of those keeping Dele Alli out of Gareth Southgate’s first-choice starting XI.

Sure, it will be as much the system that Southgate (above) uses that keeps Alli out as any individual, whether that individual be Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-chamberlain or whoever. The two bring different qualities to the table but it was still not an age ago when it would have been hard to imagine a scenario where Lingard was in a Three Lions team while a fit Alli was not, regardless of the system.

That is certainly the scenario now.

For all the links with Real Madrid and the like, for all Pochettino’s praise, Alli is now just a squad player for

GREAT NIGHT’S WORK Lingard takes a break after another good shift, allowing Lewis Cook to make his England debut