BOSS: WE’VE NO FEAR FOR TIERS

GARETH SOUTHGATE has defended his record against other big nations ahead of England’s clash with Belgium at Wembley.

England have won seven, drawn six and lost 10 of 23 games against today’s top-10 ranked nations since Southgate took over in 2016.

Belgium are ranked fourth in the world, a place lower than England, who were beaten by Brazil on Saturday.

It has not been ideal preparation for the Euros, but Southgate insists they are making progress – despite only having a 30.4 percent win ratio against the big boys, which is worse than both France and Spain.

The England boss (right) said: “The game the other night was an example – we were around four short of our starting team, five after Kyle Walker went off – but we had 54 percent of the ball compared with 34 percent when we played them in 2017.

“Possession doesn’t win matches, but it gives you control. It means that you feel as a team you have that control and a different feel in a game, where at times over the years we have just had to sit back and counter-attack.

“I know that record against the top tier teams has had to improve and has done from 2019 onwards.

“We beat Belgium at Wembley, for example. We are showing signs of progress in that aspect.

We have a study of top teams against top teams. So many of those games are drawn and are tight.

“France over the last seven or eight years have been the only ones to regularly nail those games. We have been, like Spain, win one, lose one, draw one.

“We are not getting turned over by those teams over the piece.

The general trend is one of improvement.

“We saw a lot of good things the other day, our play developing from the back is the best it has been against a top-level opponent. I thought Jordan Pickford was excellent, a real composure with the ball, and his decisionmaking. Declan Rice has helped that because his decisionmaking is different, his timing of coming to link has improved. So that helped us get through that first phase of build-up where we have often got stuck.

“Our high pressure is as good as anything we have had.

“So defensively it was the lightning transitions, and in an attacking sense it was the final third play where we needed that bit of quality.”