MY ACCOUNT
England manager Gareth Southgate highlighted the pressures that come with such a high-profile role, and implied there will be some changes to the starting-11 in the next couple of Nations League games.
The Three Lions are coming off a 1-1 draw away against Germany, and will now prepare for fixtures against Italy on Saturday, and Hungary on Tuesday.
Harry Kane netted his 50th international goal in that last fixture, and while he is clearly the first-choice striker, the rest of the team is relatively unsettled.
England is currently sitting last in the Nations League’s League A Group 3, and Southgate insisted there will be some experimentation as they try to find their optimal starting group ahead of the World Cup.
“You have seen right across Europe – France changed 10, Spain changed eight, Portugal changed seven,” he said.
“This is quite a unique set of games where teams are thinking about player welfare to a degree, freshness, but also they are preparing for a World Cup, because they know what’s coming and what they haven’t got in terms of friendlies ahead of the tournament.
“Harry [Kane] is… a phenomenal professional, the way he looks after himself. I’m not saying he’s going to get his desire to start all four games, by the way, because there’s also Tammy [Abraham] that we want to see perform as well.”
Southgate went on to discuss how demanding of a role he has, and that it feels like “you have got to win every match”.
“I know what I wanted from these games,” he said. “I also accept that with England, you’re going to be judged, and you have got to win every match.
“But I’ve got to think a little bit differently to that and accept that if there is criticism, fine.
“I have got to make the right decisions for the players, for the team, to try to improve the team and if that means criticism, then so be it.
“If my decision-making is affected by that, then it’s something I am not going to be successful with.”
