WORLD CUP QUALIFIER:

LIVELY POOL

JORDAN HENDERSON looked really mobile and sharp, Daniel Sturridge’s header was top drawer and Adam Lallana is going from strength to strengthg as a footballer this seasoseason. IIt’s no coincidence at all that the players w who played with the m most confidence for E England were the L Liverpool lads. Their Anfield boss, Jurge Jurgen Klopp, has clearly sent HenHenderson (above) and his pals off and told them:“We’re flying at the top of the league with 40 goals in 14 games, the best since 1895. So go and enjoy yourselves and I’ll see you when you get back”. They should be playing with a degree of confidence and I love the fact that that’s the case. WHY wait until Wednesday or beyond to anoint Gareth Southgate as England manager? Let’s just get it over with and appoint him today or tomorrow. Then we can all head back to Wembley on Tuesday evening with any uncertainty vanquished, without any sub- plots and buoyed with confidence from a job well done on Friday in the 3-0 victory over Scotland. There is still work ahead – and plenty of it. But just ask any top manager such as Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho, Luis Enrique or Zinedine Zidane and they will tell you that if you score three goals and keep a clean sheet in a local derby then it’s a mission accomplished. The way that England kept the ball against the Auld Enemy impressed me and so did the fact the goals came from crosses. That was obviously something interim boss Gareth has had them working at out on the training ground. All three were headers and as we passed the ball around there were even a few olés at the end too. The players look as if they are starting to grow a bit under Southgate, as if they are taking instruction from him – and that is good to see. People can see progress and as long as that is the case, by and large, they will be happy. Don’t get me wrong, it was against a Scotland s i de t hat had opportunities and half-opportunities to get ahead. But England were full value overall and it was satisfying to see them keep a fourth clean sheet in qualifying Group F and a second on the spin for Southgate. There are not any other obvious candidates out there to become Sam Allardyce’s successor, so let’s give him the job. My old team-mate is a young, hungry Englishman, who is fundamentally a good man and a good speaker and the more I see the more I am convinced he’ll be a very good choice.

TheTh players look as if they are starting to grow a bit under Southgate, as if they are taking instruction from him, and that is good to see