Gareth Southgate told his England players that they should aim to become the world’s N°1 in football as he recalled the standards required after noticing a drop in the 2-0 victory at Wembley Stadium against humble Malta last Friday.
The Manager is preparing for the last qualifying match for Euro against North Macedonia in Skopje and in a stadium where we are worried about the state of the pitch. Southgate has been hit by further withdrawals from his squad, with Kieran Trippier not found due to a personal issue and Jarrod Bowen not found with an unspecified health issue. Rico Lewis could come on his first outing to fill the problematic position of left back.
Southgate’s main concern was the state of mind of his team, and it was rare to hear him speak so emphatically about the need for total concentration on their part. England had secured their place in next summer’s final round ahead of the Malta game and are virtually certain to be among the top seeds for the December 2 group stage draw, regardless of the result against North Macedonia.
But Southgate, who calculated that his team could have moved above Brazil and into third place in the FIFA rankings, admitted that there had been too much discussion within the camp about the Final leading up to Malta. He hesitated when asked about the perception that North Macedonia was a low-stakes game – and where the marginal motivational gains could be achieved. Southgate still has a Camp next March when England play friendlies against Brazil and Belgium before naming their European Championship squad.
“We have to play superior than we did against Malta,” he said. “The qualifications are over. With the games on the weekend, we could be in third place in the world right now, but we are in two places where we need to be so as not to lose games. Some players have three games to get into a team [for the Final], others may have three to get into a team. If we want to be a top team, then the level of performance must be right every time.
“Am I motivated by being n°1? Yes, because in the end, you achieve this through consistency. In addition, every day he establishes behaviors on the training ground, away from the training ground. If you want to be the top-ranked team, there is no place for negligence or nonchalance. This must be our motivation. It is clear that the way we played against Malta is not the image we want to leave of ourselves.”
Southgate was told that if there had been an assured qualification, there might have been an unconscious failure of the players against Malta.
“Why?”he strike back. “What are we trying to do? Why should we accept this? I can’t imagine in any other environment where you would think, “Let’s just see these games. Maybe that’s why, as a team, we didn’t get to where we needed to go in the past.”
Southgate spoke about possible messaging errors before the match against Malta. “I almost feel like we’ve already talked too much about the Euro and I didn’t see our goal in the right place,” he said. “I think the summer discussions were a distraction on Friday. It was internal, Yes.”
