Southgate: My England team aren’t ‘haunted’ by failure like teams of the past

England manager Gareth Southgate says his young England team is not haunted by failure in the way other players have been, despite suffering setbacks deep in competitions in each of the last two summers. 

The Three Lions were eliminated at the semi-final stage of the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Nations League, but Southgate thinks the success in reaching the latter stages of those competitions will stand his team in good stead. 

He says the youthful nature of his squads have allowed the team to progress in a way they may not have been able to do had the old guard been kept on. 

“I think when we first took over there was a group who had been scarred a little bit by disappointment, and there was maybe a limit with how much we could shift with that,” Southgate said, ahead of games with Bulgaria and Kosovo in the next 10 days. 

“I think those that have been with us over a period of time now have had far more positive experiences, so we don’t really have players who are haunted in England shirts. [But] we’ve had disappointments at the very latter stages of big matches.” 

The Nations League semi-final loss to the Netherlands was down, in part, to some errors in defense. 

Despite that Southgate believes his team must remain committed to playing the ball out of the back, saying they have a responsibility to entertain, but must also learn to adapt. 

“We have always maintained that to be a top team you have to be able to handle the ball from the goalkeeper right the way through,” he added. 

“A couple of the goals we conceded [in the Nations League] had nothing to do with whether we play out from the back or not, thank heavens. 

“And so they mustn’t lose faith in that, but equally, we had that a little bit against the Dutch and we went short too often and didn’t mix the game up. I think that to mix the game up … to be adaptable and recognise those decisions, to recognise those opportunities, is good play. 

“I think that there is a requirement to entertain and to produce a style of play that people will watch. We have to try to achieve all of those things.”