Southgate challenges England players to book spot
GARETH SOUTHGATE challenged England’s players to “cement” their place in his European Championship thoughts as he braces himself for pressure from club managers about game- time in the Nations League dead rubber against Iceland.
A strange, testing and truncated year comes to a conclusion with Wednesday’s Wembley clash between sides that already known their fate.
Iceland’s relegation from the top tier was confirmed last month, while Sunday’s 2- 0 loss to Belgium ended England’s hopes of reaching the Nations League finals and bettering their third- place finish in the inaugural edition.
Given the circumstances surrounding the final match of the November triple- header and ongoing stresses of an unrelenting calendar, Southgate expects club managers to be twitchy about the use of their players on Wednesday.
But with time running out to earn a place in the squad for next summer’s rearranged Euros, this is one of the last occasions to experiment and impress.
“In terms of Iceland, it’s still a game that gives opportunities for people to cement a place in the team or in the squad,” Southgate said.
“Again, we’ll find out a lot now because for sure there’ll be a lot of pressure from some clubs on their own players. That’s what we live with consistently.
“But we’ve got players that want to play for England and we have pride in the way we play and we want to finish the game well.”
Elsewhere, teenager Jason Knight is hoping for a change of fortune in his fledgling international career as the Republic of Ireland attempt to end their drought. Ireland bring down the curtain on their second Nations League campaign against Bulgaria in Dublin on Wednesday evening, having won none of the nine games they have played in the competition to date.
The most recent fixture, Sunday’s 1- 0 defeat by Wales in Cardiff, extended new manager Stephen Kenny’s wait for a first victory to seven games and they have not scored in the last six, but 19- year- old Derby midfielder Knight is confident their luck will turn sooner rather than later.
Asked what needed to change, he said: “Just a bit of luck sometimes to fall our way. The application and desire is there for all to see, but we’re struggling to put the ball in the back of the net at the moment.
“Hopefully things will change soon. It’s going to be a big game on Wednesday evening. We know we have to go out there and get a result.”
Meanwhile, Ian Baraclough praised the performances of his young players as he picked out positives from Northern Ireland’s 2- 1 Nations League defeat to Austria on Sunday night.
Following 120 emotionally and physically draining minutes against Slovakia, Baraclough made eight changes in Vienna but a side featuring several younger players held its own against an experienced Austria side.
“There were so many positives,” Baraclough said. “There were a lot of questions thrown at the group after the other night, but speaking to their manager very quickly then, he complimented our mentality.”