England player ratings vs. Ireland: Bellingham the star as three players awarded 8/10

The short reign of Lee Carsley as England manager came to an end with a comfortable 5-0 win over the Republic of Ireland as a flurry of second-half goals put the Three Lions back into the top tier of the Nations League.

Having struggled to break down a disciplined Irish defence in the first half, Harry Kane’s penalty, along with its attendant red card for Liam Scales, turned the match on its head with the floodgates swiftly opening wide.

Sunday’s game also saw Carsley hand out two brand new caps while no fewer than four of England’s five scorers celebrated their first ever England goals. To help figure out who shone and who struggled at the highest level, we’ve rated every who featured out of ten below.

Jordan Pickford – 6/10

Pickford was arguably England’s best player in Greece on Thursday evening – on Sunday, he was relegated to the role of a passenger. He had just one save to make, a straightforward one at that, although he was alert enough on the occasions direct passes called for him to come out and deal with them. The kind of quiet game that goalkeepers dream about through warm and cozy nights.

Lewis Hall – 7/10

A first start for the possible long-term answer to Luke Shaw’s incessant injury problems, the Newcastle United player was heavily involved, getting 101 touches, and looked calm, composed and confident throughout. There were a couple of moments of positional naivety when Ireland went direct down England’s left flank, but no serious ricks. We won’t anoint him as the answer to England’s left-back woes just yet, but this was a solid first step.

Marc Guéhi – 7/10

Credited with the assist for England’s third goal, Guéhi’s more important contributions came at the back, where he handled most of the long passes and darting runs of the Irish attack with his usual ease and elegance. Most of them, that is – he was, perhaps, a little fortunate to get away with a challenge on Evan Ferguson which could so easily have been given as a penalty.

Kyle Walker – 6/10

Walker’s pace should have made him a good choice to get back and sweep up any attempts Ireland made to get the ball between defence and goalkeeper, but in the end he was seldom tested in such a way, or really in any way at all. The Ireland attack was insipid in the first half and non-existent in the second, allowing Walker to skate through the game without incident.

Tino Livramento – 6/10

Another young debutant from the north bank of the Tyne, Livramento looked solid enough on debut for the most part, but did struggle to stamp his authority in more physical moments while also failing to make a telling contribution in the final third – none of his three crossing attempts found their mark, although one did deflect extremely generously for his team-mate Anthony Gordon. Not a bad performance, by any stretch of the imagination, but the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Walker probably won’t be worrying about their places just yet.

Curtis Jones – 7/10

This was, in many ways, the ideal game for Jones. With Ireland seldom playing through the midfield, his credentials as a holding midfielder were hardly tested while he had plenty of opportunities to get foot on ball and show of his passing range and movement, with a couple of impressive runs into enemy territory to help out the attack. Those forward forays didn’t amount to anything on this occasion, but his grace in possession was more than evident.

Conor Gallagher – 8/10

Few will have had Gallagher bagging his first England goal on their bingo card. Fewer still will have had him attempting an 18-yard curling Rabona into the top corner a couple of minutes later. That was just how quickly and dramatically a difficult and frankly dull game changed. Aside from his goal, the former Chelsea man did just about everything right, misplacing just one pass and keeping his opposite numbers honest throughout.

Jude Bellingham – 9/10

Bellingham always looked the most likely man to find a way through – and by the end of the match he’d not only won the penalty which flipped the entire affair upside down but also tacked on two assists, one the well-worked set piece routine which teed Bowen up and the other a gloriously-weighted diagonal cross right onto the head of debutant Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Once again, he has proved that he can make the difference when England need him to step up, and once again his extraordinary level of class and skill stood out from a mile away.

Noni Madueke – 5/10

A quieter outing for Madueke today, who flashed his dancing feet and quick thinking a couple of times without being able to make a telling contribution. None of his attempted dribbles came off, and he was outmuscled by Callum O’Dowda in close quarters a couple of times. Not at his sparkling best.

Anthony Gordon – 7/10

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gordon looked quite a bit more effective with his club team-mate Hall coming outside of him occasionally than he did when he was hemmed in against Greece in midweek – and he took his first goal for England with aplomb, guiding a potentially awkward volley perfectly inside the near post. Other than that, he looked threatening without testing Caoimhín Kelleher or finding a team-mate inside the area too often.

Harry Kane – 8/10

There are plenty of people who will tell you that Kane, now 31, is slowing down too much to lead the line for England. There is, however, a good reason that his age isn’t bothering him down too much at club level yet, and a reason he is still the pre-eminent striker for his country. His penalty was taken superbly well but what really stood out, again, was his link-up play in deeper areas. It was his inch-perfect pass that allowed Bellingham to win that penalty and he repeatedly found space to offer up chances for those around him. He may not need to lead the line in the truest sense as long as England have talented goalscorers around him to feast on his creativity. Still the best.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis (on for Walker) – 7/10

The Southampton centre-back isn’t in the team to score goals, but he capped his senior debut with a well-timed run and a cracking header from Bellingham’s magnificent cross and the broad grin made it pretty clear that he won’t have minded one bit that his defensive credentials weren’t tested in his half-hour on the field.

Morgan Rogers (on for Gordon) – 6/10

A second short cameo appearance for his country in which he made a few tidy passes and a worked hard off the ball but didn’t really have time to do anything especially significant. One wonders whether he would find more chances to get involved if played in his favoured role as a number ten, but he still looked lively enough out on the left wing to suggest that he will merit further chances in the Thomas Tuchel era.

Jarrod Bowen (on for Madueke) – 8/10

Given his goalscoring record for West Ham United, it was a bit of an oddity that Bowen hadn’t found the back of the net in any of his 13 previous caps for the Three Lions – but he put that right with his very first touch, crashing home Bellingham’s pass from a clever set-piece routine. In just 15 minutes of play he found time for four shots in total and looked extremely dangerous. You can’t ask for much more from a quarter of an hour’s work.

Dominic Solanke (on for Gallagher) – 6/10

The Tottenham Hotspur striker hardly saw the ball after coming on – he managed just two touches, one to control a ball into the box and another to promptly lay it off. There was hardly enough data to give him a rating at all.

Angel Gomes (on for Jones) – 6/10

The Lille man only got a shade over ten minutes in midfield but didn’t put a foot wrong, completing all 19 of his passes – noticeably, almost all of them were first-time – and looking tidy and in total control of his game. It would have been nice to see more of him over the international break.