BORING? NO, I’M BOLD

Southgate insists he’s not over-cautious having blooded kids

GARETH SOUTHGATE insists he should be known as a “very bold” England manager.

Southgate has come in for criticism after failing to pick Jack Grealish, going back to a 3-4-3 system and then not playing to the strengths of his attacking players.

But he positively bristled at the accusation that he is a cautious boss and insisted that he is not afraid to give young players a chance. He was also keen to stress England were top scorers in the World Cup campaign and European qualifiers. However, Southgate’s persistence with three centre- backs and two holding midfielders when England have so many good forwards is beginning to leave players wondering if it is the right balance ahead of next summer’s Euros.

He said: “We’ve been pretty bold over a long period of time really. Others might have a view.

“We’ve been top scorers in the World Cup, we were top scorers in t he Euro qualifiers, we’ve been to two semi-finals. We’ve blooded any number of young players.

“We gave another two 20-somethings their debuts against Denmark alongside Mason Mount, Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips, who’s had four games in the Premier League, along with Kane and

Rashford up front. I would point to that body of work, but it is for others to have that opinion. I’m not too concerned.”

Yet Southgate does seem bothered what people think for the first time, rounding on the opinions of “people who should know better” after Harry Maguire was criticised.

TV pundit Roy Keane has been very critical of Manchester United captain, and there has been a public outcry over attack-minded Grealish being left on the bench against Belgium and Denmark having been man of the match against Wales.

Southgate was asked what Grealish now has to do to make the step up from squad player to England starter.

“He’s done extremely well with us in terms of fitting in with the group,” said Southgate. “He’s got a much better understanding of how we want to play.

“Against Denmark, he was very unfortunate. Any plans we had went out the window by going down to 10 men, because Harry Kane was doing such a good job of holding the ball up, winning headers, buying fouls for us.

“And we needed speed around him, we needed legs to be able to defend with 10, and Mason and Marcus have done that really well and we were still a threat.

“We felt we needed the speed of Jadon Sancho and Dominic Calvert- Lewin either side because when you have to def e n d a n d wait for your momoment you’ve got to be able to counter-attack quickly. They were the changes that we decided on.”

England did beat Belgium, the No.1 team in the world, but perhaps took a step back against Denmark.

And in using the 3- 4- 3 system, it means there are three centre- halves yet Southgate has used two holding midfielders as well, which can leave the front three isolated.

But he added: “There were so many positives. The young players who have come in and done so well. They are growing in resilience.”