England may have secured their place in the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1990 but the fallout hasn’t been all positive.

Gareth Southgate’s side set up a mouth-watering clash against Croatia after defeating Sweden 2-0 in Samara, with the goals coming from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli.

However, one player who has been criticised - unfairly in the opinion of many England fans - is Raheem Sterling.

The Manchester City forward was heavily criticised, particularly for his first-half appearance, on social media.

He was subsequently voted as England’s worst performing player on the Player Rater app on the BBC Sport website.

Sterling received a rating of 5.23 from fans who votes - by far and away the lowest mark of any player who started for the Three Lions.

This seemed harsh. Although Sterling missed one gilt-edged chance in the opening 45 minutes, he was busy throughout the night and always posed a threat to the Swedish defence.

Collymore nails it over Sterling's rating

The likes of Gary Neville, David Beckham and Sir Geoff Hurst have all jumped to Sterling’s defence over the past couple of days and now former England striker Stan Collymore has had his say.

The 47-year-old, who is arguably one of the most outspoken pundits in Britain, believes that voting Sterling as the worst player makes English football fans look like a nation of football illiterates.

“Three days on from a glorious Saturday in Samara and I’m still scratching my head,” Collymore writes in his latest column for the Mirror. “Because I still can’t work out how Raheem Sterling came away with the lowest mark of any England star in the BBC’s public-vote player ratings. By some distance, too.

“What I do know is that those who helped him end up with a rating of 5.23 out of 10 were not watching the same game as me. And that the vote only adds to my suspicions that we’re not the football savvy nation we should be.

'Nothing short of an embarrassment'

“Instead, we appear to be a nation jam-packed with football illiterates — people who can’t read the game and its nuances.”

He continued: “Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier and Harry Maguire were simply the three best players on the pitch.

“Harry Kane and Dele Alli were the two who were off the boil, and even if you’d never seen a football match before you’d have looked at Alli and said, ‘That guy there hasn’t been so good today’.

“Yet Sterling was voted as the worst England player out there.

“If you were him you’d be well within your rights to go, ‘Hold on, this is a bit wrong’.

“In the past, we have wondered why some players have felt bitter about playing for England. Why they haven’t wanted to play or why they have said there is too much pressure.

“This is why.

“So if we can do one thing for the rest of this competition, wherever it takes us, can we at least put games, achievements and performances into context?

“I’m not talking about the celebrities and politicians who have jumped on the bandwagon for a few more Twitter followers — they can get lost because sooner rather than later they will have moved on and will be musing about Love Island .

“No, it's the people who at least pretend to know what they’re talking about — pundits, writers and fans.

“Because for Sterling to finish bottom of Saturday's ratings was nothing short of an embarrassment.”

Collymore has nailed it here. For Sterling to be rated so far behind his teammates after that performance - which was far from terrible - is an embarrassment.

It almost as if some football fans, for whatever reason, have an agenda against the 23-year-old.

Perhaps that’s partly down to certain sections of the media, who have been heavily criticised recently for their coverage of the Kingston-born winger.

Do you agree with Stan Collymore? Have your say by leaving a comment below.