Gareth Southgate: England manager sticks the knife in on Sam Allardyce and Roy Hodgson saying he took over ‘a mess’
Gareth Southgate has not had enough time to implement his ideas as England continue grind out results rather than play attractive football
Sponsored by
GARETH SOUTHGATE claimed he inherited “a mess” after England escaped with a draw.
Joe Hart saved the dismal Three Lions with a string of saves in this World Cup qualifier.
And interim boss Southgate stuck the knife in on previous bosses Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce.
He said: “We wanted six points but we have taken over a mess and had to steady the ship. We are on track.
“I’m going to have a couple of days to go and sleep.
“I don’t want to be a team that grinds things out. We want to pass the ball. We found that difficult at times.
“What are my expectations of how much they can take on in five days and five training sessions? I have to be realistic about the impact we can have.
“But they showed signs of understanding how we want them to play. They had tactical discipline at times.
“The mistakes were a concern because you can’t make them at this level. But it’s difficult to expect too much because of the inexperience we have.
“We can play better, for sure. The opportunities they had were self-inflicted. That’s an area that clearly needs to be better. On a difficult pitch our final ball could’ve been better. We had a couple of chances that, on another day, our forwards might have finished.
“We owe our goalkeeper for an outstanding performance.
“Would I have been happy with a point before the game? No. But it’s a very important point in the context of qualifying from the group.”
England have suffered a torrid four months since the humiliating 2-1 defeat against Iceland at Euro 2016.
Hodgson quit that night and Allardyce’s reign lasted just one game before it ended in disgrace of a different kind.
Big Sam was sacked after being caught up in a newspaper sting when he was taped giving bogus businessman advice how to get round third-party ownership rules relating to player deals.
Related articles
Southgate stepped into the breach from managing the Under-21s and has four games before the FA will make a decision over the next permanent boss of the national side.
Asked whether last night’s nerves were as a result of the embarrassment against Iceland, Southgate said: “I’m not sure. Qualifiers away from home have always been tense — when I was playing too. Very tight.
“Very few you romped away with.
“When you start as we did in the second half, that creates anxiety.
“We’d looked as if we might have created more in the first half and might have done better.
“We are very much a work in progress as far as I can see.
“What was key was that this was an incredibly difficult ten days in terms of taking over and the withdrawals with injury. We got four points, we would have liked six and could have been more fluent with the ball. But we sit top of the group.”
Jesse Lingard reacted angrily to Andraz Struna as tempers boiled over at the end and had to be calmed down by man-of-the-match Hart.
Southgate said: “I’m told he reacted to someone raising their hands at Marcus.
“That’s something he’s got to cut out. There’s a danger you get a red card in this sort of game when there’s inconsistency in a lot of the decisions.”
England’s arrival in town used to be a big draw but clearly no more.
The loyalty of the thousands who turn up at Wembley for home games is commendable — yet slightly worrying.
But the empty seats at the Stadion Stozice proved other countries now realise the Three Lions are no longer worth watching.
Those hoping for a new era are kidding themselves. Nothing has changed. In fact, this team could actually be getting worse.
Under another new boss, England were disjointed, dysfunctional and particularly in central areas, disorganised.
A mess, in fact.
Watch ALL the goals from the Premier League before anyone else for FREE plus all the latest news, fixtures and results and live match commentary all on the go with the new Sun Football App – click here to download