Micah Richards urges John Stones to stay ‘switched on’ to keep Kylian Mbappe quiet

Micah Richards has warned John Stones that he must remain alert against France to help his team-mate Kyle Walker deal with the threat of PSG star Kylian Mbappe.

Richards believes that Mbappe is not just a threat down the right, but that he scores goals from all areas of the pitch, and World Cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann added that England will have to defend ‘as a team’ on Saturday.

Much has been made of the battle between Mbappe and Walker, and how the winner will decide the outcome of the quarter-final clash, but Richards and Klinsmann are insistent that it is about more than a one vs one duel.

“I think sometimes you can make the battle too personal. If you look at where Mbappe has got his goals from it is not just coming onto his right from the left, it is the centre of goal as well.

‘So [John] Stones needs to make sure he is switched on. I was playing against a winger and it would sometimes affect my game on build-up, as I was so worried about who I was playing against, I was not in my natural position for build-up.

‘When you are not approaching the game as you normally would, you can leave gaps and spaces everywhere else.’

But Mbappe is not the only player England need to be wary of when they come up against a star-studded French line-up, and Richards added: ‘It is not just about Mbappe, they have some top players like (Antoine) Griezmann, (Olivier) Giroud, (Ousmane) Dembele, they are all class players.’