Croatia boss Bilic slams 'defensive' England

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic believes England were too defensive at the World Cup in Germany, insisting: 'They were nothing.'

Bilic, whose side will host England next week in a European Championship qualifier, criticised the squad assembled by former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson for failing to gel as a team.

He told The Sun: 'They were no good. They were nothing.

'I have never seen in my life such a great collection of players play as defensively as they did.

'They were so boring. They just didn't play as a group, they played as individuals. And I really thought they had a great chance to win the World Cup.'

Bilic. who featured for West Ham and Everton during his playing career, added: 'You can look back now and say the team had had a long season, they were under pressure, there were big expectations on them. But they are all just excuses.'