Tony Cascarino felt sorry for Bukayo Saka against USA (Picture: talkSPORT)

Tony Cascarino accused Bukayo Saka of having his worst ever game for England against USA last night but admitted he felt sympathy for the Arsenal winger.

The 21-year-old burst onto the World Cup stage earlier this week with two goals during the Three Lions demolition of Iran.

Saka kept his place in an unchanged lineup against America but he struggled to exert any influence on the game as England delivered an all too familiar circumspect performance.

Gareth Southgate is likely to maintain faith in Saka for the final group stage game against Wales on Tuesday, but Cascarino fears he and fellow wide man, Raheem Sterling, are being wasted by their manager.

He told talkSPORT: ‘The two wide boys were poor. Sterling one side and Saka I thought probably had his worst game in an England shirt.

‘I felt sorry for him because wingers need the ball early one thing you can’t to is keep passing the ball at the back and then give the winger the ball when he’s basically got the defender on top of him so what’s he going to do?

‘The next pass is going to backwards or sideways. It was a one-paced performances in many many ways.’

Much of the post match criticism of Southgate has centred on his reluctance to play Phil Foden who was an unused substitute and forced to watch on as England failed to muster a semblance of attacking threat in the second half.

Southgate was quizzed over Foden’s role in the squad in the post match press conference and said: ‘Obviously, whichever one of our forwards we didn’t put on if we didn’t win the game, I was going to be sitting here answering questions about why I didn’t put them on.

‘We wanted to change the wide areas, we didn’t think it was a game for Phil in the middle because he doesn’t play there for his club and defensively it was a really complicated game for the midfield three to work out.

‘That’s why we thought Hendo could help us at that moment as well as giving Jude (Bellingham) a physical rest.

‘It was a game for experience in the middle area and then it was a decision on wide players.

‘We thought Marcus’ speed would be important and Jack could carry the ball up the pitch for us, win fouls and relieve pressure on us.

‘Without a doubt we love Phil, he’s a super player. We could have gone with Phil and maybe things would have been different, but that was the choice we made on the night.’

MORE : England fans ‘made to strip naked’ after dressing as Crusaders in Qatar

MORE : Chelsea legend John Terry slams Gareth Southgate’s tactics during World Cup bore draw against USA

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The winger was accused of having his ‘worst ever’ game for the Three Lions.