LET US ENTERTAIN YOU
Southgate insists his young Lions will come out all guns blazing and put on a show as they bid to end 12 long, painful years of knockout stage failure
NEVER mind any looming beer shortage, back home or here in Russia, Gareth Southgate is promising champagne football on a win-or-bust night in Moscow.
If his England players are knocked out by Colombia, they are going to go down swinging. If they exit stage left, it will not be for lack of entertainment.
Forget the caginess that has characterised a couple of the do-or-die games at Russia 2018.
Forget the brain-freeze at Euro 2016 that allowed Iceland to send England packing, meaning their last win in the sudden-death stages of a major tournament remains the one against Ecuador at Germany 2006.
Southgate (right) firmly believes the youngest squad left in this tournament and, barring one alteration, the starting line-up that slammed six past Panama, will at least be on the front foot in the Spartak Stadium.
The England manager declared: “We have to show the freedom we’ve played with up to this point. I want the players to continue to attack the tournament as we have.
“That shouldn’t change in the knockout stage. We should feel freer.
“Of course, sometimes you see cagey games at this point of the competition but we will continue to play in the style we have. We think we can cause opposing teams a lot of problems and that won’t change because we are in the knockout phase.
“I want the players to go out and play the way they have. My messages allow them to do that. They’re good enough to do that. They’re technically a very good group of players.
“We have high energy. They’re comfortable playing a certain style.”
Southgate is aware that expectation is sky-high back home, even though the national team has serious previous for disappointing the country. And that is because this is a squad that has captured the public imagination. “For some reason, they like these lads,” laughed Southgate. “I think that has gained us more support, plus the performances have been good. “We have all been hurt by disappointment, but maybe some of our expectations have been a little unrealistic. “Whenever I have been to a tournament, not as a player, it has been a carnival and a festival of football and we have often overlooked that. We should all enjoy the journey.” It’s been a straightforward countdown to the Colombian crunch for Southgate. Apart from Fabian Delph’s dash home to his pregnant wife, he has had a full roster of players in training – but his starting lineup is set in stone.
Four of that team began the ill-fated game against Iceland while two other members of this squad came on as substitutes.
And Southgate is promising there will be no repeat of the debacle that put an end to Roy Hodgson’s reign, especially as he believes England might have been guilty of looking beyond their immediate task in Euro 2016.
He explained: “We have an understanding that it is pointless looking beyond this game – and that was a trap we’ve fallen into in the past.
“A few of these players were in the last championships in a fixture they thought they should win, and then once behind they suddenly felt that approach wasn’t one that was correct. “Up against a really good team, we won’t fall into that trap tomorrow.” Bold words from a bold manager. Now for the bold performance.
England expects.