England have the right mentality to reach final but it won't be an easy win

The first thing to say about Wednesday's Euro 2020 semi-final is that confidence must be sky-high in the England camp.

If you're looking around your teammates in the changing room before a huge match like this and thinking 'he's going to hide' or 'I'm not sure about him' then you know you're in trouble.

You have to treat it like any other game because you have to trust in what has worked for you up until now.

If you approach it differently then you can use up a lot of mental energy in the days leading up to the fixture and that is going to be detrimental to your performance.

From what I've seen of the England players at this tournament, it looks as though Gareth Southgate has them so relaxed.

They won't be fazed by the occasion. Yes, they're a young squad but they've got so much top-class club experience. Mason Mount, Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling all started the Champions League final in May and the Manchester United lads got to the Europa League final too.

Probably the two with the least experience at that level are Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips and they've hardly put a foot wrong at these finals.

I think Southgate has changed the English mentality a little bit like Jurgen Klopp did at Liverpool. Klopp said they had to turn themselves from doubters into believers but also stay level-headed.

Before, if Liverpool were top of the table after five games, everyone would be saying 'this is our year' but throughout that title-winning season Klopp refused to talk about being champions until they couldn't be caught mathematically.

In the lead-up to the Germany game, the English media built things up and there was still the sense that as long as they beat the Germans it doesn't matter what happens next.

In Germany we're more pragmatic – if we'd won that game there wouldn't have been big celebrations because we'd know there were still three more matches to go.

Southgate had the same attitude, coming out immediately after the win over Germany to talk about focusing on the next game against Sweden or Ukraine.

He knows this is what tournament football is about: the winner takes it all. England had a favourable draw in the World Cup in Russia but couldn't take advantage. They've had a similar run to the semis at this tournament and they have to make the most of the opportunity this time.

Solid Danes could make England sweat

From a betting perspective, I'm not sure I'd be touching England at around 8-11 to beat Denmark in 90 minutes.

They've not been free-scoring at this tournament and I think you have to put a line through the 4-0 win in the quarter-finals because that ended up as a mismatch.

Ukraine conceded early, then let in two goals from set-pieces, and were physically overpowered, which I can't see happening to the Danes.

Denmark are defensively solid with one of the best goalkeepers in the tournament in Kasper Schmeichel. The centre-backs Kjaer, Christensen and Vestergaard have all been outstanding and in midfield Thomas Delaney and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg sweep up well in front of the defence.

The Danes made fast starts against Belgium in the group game and the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals but I'm not sure they'll go hard at England early on at Wembley.

I'm expecting more of a tactical affair, a low-scoring contest, and I wouldn't put anyone off backing no goalscorer. England will be happy to sit back and pass the ball around and Southgate is unlikely to change his defensive approach at this stage of the tournament.

He had the opportunity to play more expansively in the group matches against Scotland and the Czechs but stuck with Rice and Phillips as the holding midfielders.

Obviously, England deserve credit for keeping five straight clean sheets. The full-backs have been good, as have Maguire and Stones, and Tyrone Mings did well at centre-back when he played.

Equally, though, if you've got six defensive players in the team then you shouldn't concede many chances.

Against Germany, when Kieran Trippier came in, Southgate had seven defensive players in the 11 and I felt that showed the Germans too much respect.

It wasn't a well-balanced team and it was no surprise that England lacked fluency going forward.

As an England backer the concern would be over what Southgate does if they go behind. Maybe it won't happen, maybe they'll win the tournament without trailing in a game, but it's a big question mark at the moment.

Does he take off Rice or Phillips and bring, say, Jack Grealish on? Because that would really change the dynamics of the team.

In a funny way, Southgate probably has too many attacking options on the bench. When it was 0-0 in the last-16 clash, you knew Germany had one or two players who could come on and change the game whereas England had five or six to choose from!

Admittedly, it's a nice problem to have and you can't argue with Southgate's approach so far. You do lose a bit of creativity when you have Rice and Phillips in the same midfield but they are reliable and it's worked well for England.

Those options off the bench mean England to win in extra-time looks a tempting bet but I wouldn't be getting carried away with them winning the whole thing yet. They should get past Denmark but they'll face a stronger team in the final and that will be a serious test for their defence.

Classy Rafa can win over the doubters

A handful of Everton fans are complaining about Rafa Benitez's appointment but in six months' time Liverpool supporters will be more unhappy about it because I reckon he'll do well.

Rafa is a terrific manager and he's shown that wherever he's been. This situation won't worry him – there was similar animosity towards him when he took over at Chelsea and he ended up winning the Europa League.

At the end of the day, fans want their club to be successful and that's what Rafa can deliver at Everton.

Looking at next season's Premier League title race, I can't have Manchester City at 4-6, especially after the disappointment of losing the Champions League final. I think Liverpool and Chelsea will run them close.

Liverpool don't need to do much to close the gap on City. When Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are fit again they'll be much stronger and it will free up Fabinho to play in midfield.

That's the problem area because James Milner isn't getting any younger and Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have struggled to stake a claim to be regular starters.

Georginio Wijnaldum's departure for Paris St-Germain is a huge loss. He's been a brilliant player for Liverpool so I'd expect them to bring in a couple of new midfielders to offset his exit.

It's a big season for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United too and I expect Jadon Sancho to be a star at Old Trafford.

I've rarely seen a winger who can beat his man so easily. He drops the shoulder and just walks past defenders.

Sancho could galvanise the likes of Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba at United too. Having watched him in the Bundesliga, he makes other players better, creating chances and pulling defenders out of position, and we saw glimpses of that in England's quarter-final win against Ukraine.

I was surprised that he was on the periphery of the tournament for so long. Obviously Raheem Sterling has done well at these finals but he struggled to get into the City team for the last four or five months of the season.

In my view, not only is Sancho England's best winger, he's the best winger in world football and United fans should be very excited about his return to Manchester.

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