England must be braver against teams that sit deep

DR Congo will likely play a low block, but I think they'll have a bit more in forward positions than perhaps Ghana did.

If England can't get through the low bloack, they've got to go around it. If they can't do that, they've got to score from a set-piece. They've got to have the belief that they can win this game.

They've not had a bad draw up until now. It was a favourable group for England, albeit they made hard work of it. They still topped the group, winning two of the games. But let's hope the best is still to come from England, because there's no doubt they're going to have to step up and they're going to have to improve.

The right-back crisis is Tuchel's gamble to bear

Thomas Tuchel decided to pick players with an injury record. So it was always going to be a gamble for the manager, and at the minute that gamble is not paying off. But if England go on and win it, they still have Djed Spence who can play right back and Ezri Konsa who can play there if they bring John Stones back into the centre of defence.

So they've still got one or two options. It's not ideal with the two right backs he picked out injured, and even the backup centre-half he picked to play in that position, out injured as well.

If we go out earlier than the quarter-finals then questions will inevitably be chucked at Tuchel and rightly so. He has said he didn't see this problem at right-back coming. But everyone was aware of the injury record of Reece James and Livramento.

At the minute, England are still in the competition. They've still got a really good chance of getting through to the Round of 16 and then we'll see what happens after that.

For Wednesday against DR Congo, I would play Spence. It is not ideal because you lose a little bit of quality down the right-hand side. And again I go back to my point from the other day - Tuchel has chopped and changed it so much, he's not aware of what the best combination is yet in defence.

Alan Shearer's prediction for England v DR Congo

My starting XI against DR Congo would be: Pickford, Spence, Stones (although he may be injured after missing the last two games, and if so then I would play Konsa), Guéhi, O'Reilly, Rice, Anderson, Bellingham, Saka, Rashford, Kane.

My prediction is an England victory, 2-1. Harry Kane and Declan Rice on the scoresheet.

Now that we're in the knockouts, they will be thinking about penalty takers. We've already seen some big teams, Germany and the Netherlands, go out on penalties in the round of 32.

My five penalty-takers would be: Harry Kane, Anthony Gordon, Ivan Toney, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, if they are all on the pitch.

I've been in that situation where you've got your five before the game and there may be only two left on the pitch. So you have to chop and change. But in an ideal world, if it goes to penalties, those would be my five.

Last 16 against Mexico would be tough for England

Looking at England's route to the final I would be most worried about going to the Azteca in Mexico. Mexico have only lost two World Cup games there in 60 years. So that really concerns me.

Even if England go through and play Ecuador, I guess they would handle the conditions better than we could. I don't know what their plans would be if that were the case. But either Mexico or Ecuador at altitude is a really difficult game and that would worry me.

It's very difficult to predict how things will unfold. I mean, not many people would have given Paraguay a chance against Germany. Not many people would have said Cape Verde wouldn't lose a game in the group stage, and they didn't. They drew with Spain, which was incredible. The World Cup has shown us already how unpredictable it can be.

In this round of 32, a lot of the third-place teams are going to play a similar way to Paraguay against Germany. We'll see more penalty shootouts.

Alan Shearer's World Cup Final prediction - France v Argentina

There's are many stories at this World Cup, Morocco being one, Cape Verde obviously being the biggest one. Colombia will be really tough opponents for anyone. I've been really impressed with them.

For all the surprises so far, though, I will still stick to my initial prediction - I still think it will be France versus Argentina in the final.

Kane staying abroad is relief (for all- time Premier League top scorer Shearer)

It sounds as though Harry Kane is going to be staying at Bayern Munich for another season or two and I'm quite pleased.

They won the league again and were close in the Champions League, so it's not a surprise he wants to stay. He might feel he has unfinished business with Bayern in the Champions League. But whatever his reasoning is, I'm hoping he stays over there for obvious reasons.

Is it a shame that one of England's greatest strikers might not see out his career in England? No, I think it's great.

Alex Scott will be on lots of clubs' transfer wishlist

Arsenal have been linked with Alex Scott and, if anyone offers the right price, then Bournemouth will sell. They lost Antoine Semenyo, look who they replaced him with. They lost all their back four at the beginning of last season and look what they've done again. So, they have this model that works for them.

It's no surprised to see Alex Scott is being linked with huge clubs because he's a wonderful player and he will go to the next level. It's just a matter of when.

Chelsea are an embarrassment

Sunderland bought Granit Xhaka for £17.5m. He's one of the best players in this Premier League, not only at Sunderland, but in the entire top flight. And Chelsea think they can come in and offer less than half of what they bought him for and think that's acceptable? I mean, that's bizarre to me.

I understand that he might want to go, but if he wants to go and clearly his agent has done some talking to Chelsea, then I mean it's a pretty embarrassing bid when a year earlier they paid £17.5m and he's been one of the best players in the league. It's embarrassing from Chelsea really.

I mean, they're clearly not getting him. I mean, why would you sell a player for less than half when he's been one of the best players? I mean, it's ridiculous.

Bruno Guimarães must stay at Newcastle

It would look be a really poor look for Newcastle to sell their best player. You can see what he's doing for Brazil in this World Cup. He's been one of their best players. He is a brilliant talent. And with Anthony Gordon going, it would be a really poor look if Newcastle were to sell Bruno. And it would not go down well with the fans.

I'd be surprised if it were to happen. I hope it's just paper talk and there's no truth in that because it would be a big blow to Newcastle. There'd be a lot of angry fans if he were to go.

With social media today, everyone has an opinion and everyone can say what they want. So 99% of it is going to be trash, and I hope the rumours about Bruno are trash.

Scotland must learn from their World Cup disaster

Scotland only scored one goal at the World and were knocked out in the group stages. Steve Clarke has resigned so they've now got to sit down and think what do they want? How do they want to go?

It was probably the right decision for Steve to do what he did. He's had an amazing time and been brilliant for Scotland as their manager, and he was very proud to be their manager.

They've only got themselves to blame for this World Cup. You can't do what they did against Brazil in the hope that you're going to get through.

He's taking responsibility, and I get that and understand that. I do think it is the honourable thing to do, despite him signing the new contract a couple of months ago. So congratulations to him on his reign, but it hasn't been a good way to end.

Now read the England v DR Congo in-depth match preview