The versatile defender spent almost 10 years in our colours through until January, 2024, during which time he represented England at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, plus the European Championships in 2016.
Now playing for Monaco after 18 months at Bayern Munich, Eric revealed last week that he’d spoken to his former Spurs team-mate Djed Spence ahead of the full-back’s involvement at this summer’s tournament – and now he’s looking forward to seeing how his old boss in Germany, Thomas Tuchel, uses the talent at his disposal when he takes charge of the Three Lions in Dallas this evening.
“I’ve worked with Thomas Tuchel (at Bayern) and he’s a fantastic manager, a fantastic person, his staff as well,” he said. “I was only with him for six months, but I thought he was fantastic and very charismatic, very intelligent.
“I think England have a squad full of quality. There's five or six nations that probably feel they have everything they need to win it, so it’s then about the details, set pieces, defending well – two huge factors. I look back at the finals I was involved in for Spurs – Man City in the League Cup, that was a corner. Chelsea in the League Cup, also a corner. The Champions League Final was a penalty and a second phase from a corner. It's very small margins at times.
“I'm just trying to think back to the World Cups and the Euros I was part of and the games don’t get any bigger. You have to you have to tread carefully all the way through, because every game is difficult in different ways and the level of football has increased massively – the tactical discipline and physical capabilities have improved drastically, especially in what you might see as the ‘smaller’ nations. So, it's a long journey, but England have everything they need.”