Southgate: I’ll demand even MORE from my star striker

IT turns out that there was just the briefest period of panic in the English ranks on Monday night.

That moment arrived when Tunisia were awarded their first-half penalty and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford realised Ferjani Sassi was going to take it. Sassi was not on Pickford’s list.

To the credit of a young man in his first competitive international, Pickford quickly dispatched a team-mate to the bench. Then he employed stalling tactics, wasting enough time for full back Ashley Young to sprint back with a message. Young told him to dive to his right — and it nearly paid off.

Such composure under pressure was, for manager Gareth Southgate, among the more pleasing aspects of his side’s display against Tunisia.

Sure, it was not always evident, most notably when his forwards were wasting clear chances to score, but the manner in which they stuck to the task and, more crucially, stuck to their game plan, was the principal reason why they secured three precious World Cup points with a stoppage-time winner.

Down in the basement of the Volgograd Arena late on Monday night, Southgate was calm. No longer lost in the heat of the moment after Harry Kane’s second goal had sparked wild celebration on the England bench, he had time for cold reflection.

He had no interest in responding to the question of whether Kane had just proved himself a worldclass striker. Not least, he explained, because he wants more.

‘I’ll keep challenging him because I’m always a little uncertain as to what that title means and what you need to do to really gain it,’ he said. ‘But he’s a player we are privileged to have and I’m delighted to have him as my captain.’

But Southgate must be concerned by the lack of international goals from his other forwards and what is fast becoming an over-reliance on a striker who has now scored 15 in 25 England appearances — and 48 in 54 games for club and country this season.

It is almost three years since Raheem Sterling scored for England and when he is now being deployed in such an advanced position that again brings him into sharp focus.

On Monday, however, Southgate dismissed such talk, preferring to concentrate on the more positive aspects of a broadly encouraging performance in the belief that things — his side’s finishing included — will fall into place.

‘We won’t do anything different from what we have done in the last three weeks,’ said Southgate in response to a question about England’s finishing. ‘We’ll have a different sort of test against Panama this weekend.

‘We saw for 45 minutes how stubborn they are and Belgium have some outstanding individuals who were able to open them up.’

Sterling does seem to be under pressure when Marcus Rashford is such an attractive alternative, and it might well be a change Southgate makes come Sunday’s clash with Panama.

But the manager was in no mood to criticise Sterling after Monday’s victory, preferring instead to praise him.

‘I was really pleased with the performance he gave,’ he said. ‘His movement, his touch, there were a lot of fouls and a lot of them were on him. That bought us more pressure because we were able to get more set-plays into their box.

‘I don’t remember us creating as many clear cut chances as that.’

Commenting on Rashford and Ruben Loftus- Cheek, Southgate said: ‘We’ve got some exciting players to bring into the game. Dele Alli and Raheem had a big impact but we just thought it was a good opportunity to put two pairs of fresh legs on that pose a different threat.

‘Both of those boys (Rashford and Loftus- Cheek) played well when they came on and had a good impact.’