Gareth Southgate insisted he was prepared to take on England’s struggling state after being booed at the end of a 1-0 defeat in Italy that saw the Three Lions relegated from Group A3 to the UEFA Nations League.
Giacomo Rasbadori scored the only goal at the San Siro with a superb volley in the 68th minute of the match that sealed England’s fifth game without a win, adding to the pressure on Southgate to put in a better display against Germany at Wembley on Monday, their last game against the world. The cup starts in November.
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The England team got only two points from five matches in the Nations League and asked the fans’ response at the final whistle, he said (52 years): “I understand the reaction in the end.” “These are the results we got in this competition. It’s an understandable emotional reaction.
“Tonight, we didn’t get the result we needed or wanted so we are in a series of bad results but we have to correct that.
“The only way to do that is to stick with what we believe in, stick with what has worked for us in previous tournaments and in the end the players have to stay really tight because there will be a lot of noise but a lot of that will be around me and that’s totally fine. That’s my job is to take this on. pressure for them.
England were heavy on possession as Southgate opted for a five-man defense with Bukayo Saka deployed at full-back, a role he no longer plays at Arsenal club level.
His team finished 14 shots for Italy’s 10, four on target with a hat-trick for the Azzurri and a possession of 56%, but Gianluigi Donnarumma rarely had trouble with the double tackle to deny Harry Kane.
“It’s hard for me to be so critical of the performance,” Southgate said. “We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target, and we played really well for large parts of the game.”
“We didn’t approach the decisive moment defensively, we had moments where we had a chance to be more decisive in the last third, and our quality wasn’t quite right. It’s a mantra, of course, that the results will ultimately go to be what people react to.”
“I thought there were a lot of positive signals as a team, a lot of good individual performance. Personally, I thought the performance was a step in the right direction. I understand that because of the result there will be no reaction from the outside.”
