ENGLAND NEED A LEADER

Southgate calls for new Roo

GARETH SOUTHGATE has warned England’s new generation there is no hiding place for them on the road to Russia.

The Three Lions boss wants his young cubs to really start roaring now that pack leader Wayne Rooney has called it a day, starting with the World Cup qualifiers against Malta on September 1 and Slovakia three days later.

Everton star Rooney’s retirement leaves England without a skipper as Southgate bids to steer his men to next summer’s finals in Russia.

Southgate, who admits he hasn’t a firm replacement in mind, said: “Wayne’s been somebody it may have been easy to hide behind, because he has carried that burden.

“I think that has been unfair on ® him. If we are going to be an outstanding team moving forward, then you need players who are going to step up in the big moments, step up in games, every time they play for England.

“Wayne has a fantastic football brain and the players respond and listen when he is talking.

“With the decision he has made, some of those players now have to take that responsibility themselves.”

Future

Southgate has rewarded some of his England kids, with call-ups for Everton’s Jordan Pickford and Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah.

Both are uncapped along with Leicester defender Harry Maguire, who also gets his first call-up.

Southgate said: “None of them are quite where they want to be yet and the future is all ahead of them. That’s exciting as a coach.

“As we saw in the summer, there are some exciting kids coming through.

“There are young players getting opportunities in the first few weeks of the season and slowly things are looking brighter.

“For me the balance has got to be okay. They are going to need some experience around them but also I want to give them their head a bit and see what might be possible.”

And the coach admits he won’t lose any sleep over the captaincy issue. “I don’t know is the honest answer,” he said when discussing Rooney’s replacement.

“Other countries pick the most experienced player as the captain or the most-capped player on the day.

“I captained every club I was at and at times it was exhausting because I felt that there wasn’t enough shared responsibility.

“When England won the Rugby World Cup, Martin Johnson was the captain, but that could have been Lawrence Dallaglio, Will Greenwood or Matt Dawson.

“There were any number of strong personalities. That’s what we need.”

England’s Under-20s showed plenty of the qualities Southgate is looking for as they stormed to victory in the World Cup in South Korea.

And 13 players from that squad have been called up for the Under-21s Championship qualifiers against Holland and Latvia, including Freddie Woodman of Newcastle, Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke, Lewis Cook of Bournemouth and Kyle Walker-Peters of Tottenham.