CHEERS LADS
Southgate lets his side have a beer after perfect start before focus turns to Belgium
‘It’s important to get the music on and enjoy the fact we’ve qualified’
INJURY update on Gareth Southgate: the strapping on the recently-dislocated right shoulder remains heavy, stretching his shirtsleeve to its Lou Ferrignolike limit. But he wants to run again.
Indeed he is trying to persuade the team doctor to let him run while he remains in Russia. ‘We’re in negotiations,’ he confirms.
And why? Because these are the moments that are precious to the England manager. The moments when he has time to himself, his thinking time.
After watching his side secure their passage to the last 16 of this World Cup with that storming display against Panama, Southgate was asked how he copes with the pressure of leading the national team. While he takes care of his players and the staff, is anyone taking care of him?
Someone suggests the team psychologist, Dr Pippa Grange, would be someone he could turn to when he needs a sounding board.
‘Pippa is around the hotel all the time if we need to speak but, for me, normally exercise is the most important thing,’ he said. ‘That’s proving more complicated now. I’m on the Wattbike (state-of-theart exercise bike) at the moment, which I’m not enjoying.
‘But you have to switch off and find time. I get energy from being on my own so I have to make sure I recognise the moments to find some space, get thinking time, get away.
‘Other people get their energy in the group. And managing our energy, as a collective, is really important over the month. You can keep pushing and pushing but you have to take moments to relax and unwind. But I’m very clear in my mind what I need and how to manage myself.’
When he is not falling over, running through the forest in Repino is ideal. It is time alone and time when he can plot England’s next steps through this tournament.
Right now there is plenty for him to consider, starting with what team to select for Thursday’s final group game against Belgium when qualification to the knockout stages is already guaranteed for both sides.
In the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium on Sunday, Southgate said he would first allow his players some time to relax and enjoy their victory. ‘When we get back it’s an important moment to get the music on and have a couple of beers,’ he said. ‘We should enjoy the win, enjoy the fact we’ve qualified, then we can start the process of the next phase.
‘When I look back we didn’t really enjoy qualifying (for the World Cup) as much as we should have done, so we want to get that right this time. I was sitting out there thinking you don’t often have moments like that as a manager at any level.’
But what does Southgate do now when Thursday’s game in Kaliningrad represents an opportunity to rest key players but the final places in Group G are yet to be decided?
According to sources in the Belgium camp, Roberto Martinez and his squad would prefer to finish second, allowing them to play their last-16 match in Moscow — where they are based — and put them on course for a quarter-final with Mexico or Switzerland, assuming they first conquer Japan, Senegal or Colombia.
The alternative, of course, is likely to be Brazil or Germany in the last eight.
Southgate insists he is not thinking that way, highlighting the last European Championship as a reason why any attempt to plot a path through the tournament is a pointless exercise.
In the England camp there were celebrations when it emerged they would be meeting Iceland, and look how that turned out.
‘For our country, that would be a very difficult mindset to have,’ said Southgate. ‘We want to win every game of football we go into. I don’t know how we would go into a game not wanting to win and not wanting to play well.
‘So that’s dangerous territory if we start trying to plot and predict where we might end up. We had a favourable draw, we all thought, in the last tournament and it didn’t work out that way. We just have to keep playing as well as we can, keep preparing the team the right way, keep the momentum and keep the squad involved. That’s the one thing I think is really important.’
Of course, resting players could be regarded as an attempt to diminish a team’s chances of winning the game if they wanted to avoid Brazil or Germany.
But Southgate is entitled to play the long game and pick the four remaining outfield players who are yet to kick a ball at this tournament — namely Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Danny Welbeck. Not only does it help keep the players sharp for later in the tournament, but it allows him to give others a break, including Harry Kane.
‘I think (the Panama game) would have taken a lot out of everybody and there’s a short turnaround between the game against Belgium and the next round,’ said Southgate.
‘We have to manage energy. We’re better placed to do that because we keep the ball longer, but you could see the players at the end. It’s taken a lot out of them.
‘We have to consider everything. I felt it was important for Jamie Vardy, Fabian Delph and Danny Rose to play. There were four or five others I’d have liked to get on the pitch as well. I’ve got to think through all of those things, competition for places, players who need match minutes and keeping the unity of the squad.’
And Kane? He might want to maintain his challenge for the Golden Boot but Southgate stressed the need to ‘make decisions that are right for the team’.
Decisions he may well reach when he is next out on a run.