LITHUANIA ENGLAND GAFFER HAS A BIG POINT
IF it is a motivational ploy, it is a dangerous one. If it is simply the naked truth, they might not want to hear it.
Not for the first time, Gareth Southgate has told his players that Premier League fame and fortune do not make them big-time.
Big wages do not make them big-time, big transfer fees do not make them big-time.
He kept coming back to the word. Big. He listed a few in the category, declaring: “Big players are Pique, Ramos, Busquets, Kroos, Khedira, Neuer…I could go on. That’s what big players are.”
With a couple of Premier League golden boots in his locker, Harry Kane might ight think he is a big player. er.
With a £49million transfer tag, Kyle Walker might think he is a big player.
With frequent links to the likes of Real Madrid, Dele Alli li might think he is a big player.
With 74 England caps to his name, Joe Hart might think he is a big player.
Not by Southgate’s definition. Sat in a side room in a Vilnius hotel, it was an honest, animated departure from a bland look ahead to an unappetising dead rubber on Lithuania’s plastic.
For calling it as he sees it, Southgate deserves credit,, in the same way he deserved credit for saying one or two of the players could consider themselves lucky to be in the squad.
Now qualification is done, there is a feeling Southgate is determined to challenge them, not indulge them. To tell them they are not as good as some of them believe. “We create a bubble in our country around the Premier League because of the money, because of the profile but we can’t consider ourselves big players – and I am the same as a coach,” he said.
He does have options that should produce a far better performance than the one at Wembley in Thursday.
He cannot dodge that, nor can he use what he says is their youthfulness and inexperience as a defence.
The entire starting XI against Slovenia had major tournament experience. This is not some development team.
But Southgate (below) still wants us to believe there is plenty of improvem improvement left and feels the re return of Adam La Lallana will help.
“In my year in c charge, Adam has been our best player and we’ve not had himhi for three ma matches,” he said. “I know how I felt about the performance the other night but I had a group of players giving absolutely everything. It wasn’t the moment to talk about who we didn’t have.
“But there is a challenge there. We want to be more exciting but we need to keep winning.
“Give the lads a chance... our expectations are not in tune with reality. It’s not going to help them if negativity is as high as it can be.
“As the coach, it’s no problem if people want to have a go at me.”
Southgate will not be short of takers on that score – but hopefully, none from his own dressing room. LITHUANIA manager Edgaras Jankauskas has an unorthodox plan to halt “goalscoring machine” Harry Kane – prevent the in-form England striker from entering the stadium. Gareth Southgate’s men wrapped up World Cup qualification by beating Slovenia on Thursday evening and are looking to end Group F with a bang in Lithuania. “The first plan would be to not let him into the stadium!” said Jankauskas. “We know he is in terrific form and to stop him we have to pay a lot of attention and to use everything we can against such a goalscoring machine.” On criticism of England’s performances, Jankauskas added: “England always get criticised even if they win.” JACK BUTLAND insists he has got enough time to establish himself as England’s No.1 before next summer’s World Cup.
Butland, 24, will start against Lithuania tonight and does not hide his ambition to succeed Joe Hart as first choice, even if the clock is ticking.
Stoke keeper Butland, who made his competitive debut for England in Lithuania two years ago, is desperate to show tonight and in the next eight months that he should be first choice in Russia.
It is rare to hear a player be so brazen about wanting to take a teammate’s place, but Butland gave no diplomatic answers.
When asked whether he has got enough time to get the No.1 shirt before next summer, Butland said: “I believe so, I don’t believe it’ll be purely on international form either.
“Obviously Joe is now our third most- capped goalkeeper. He’s rightly had the No.1 spot for a long time. I’m just here to challenge that.
“It’s really good between all of us keepers to be fair. We’re all after the same shirt but we’re keen to push each other to a high standard as that means success for us as a nation.
Experiment
“We have brilliant rivalry but a great friendship too. Joe made some great saves against Slovenia and put in a really good performance for us which is what we want and I’m sure it would go the opposite way if someone else is in goal.”
Gareth Southgate will experiment i n Vilnius with World Cup qualification guaranteed. The England boss will use a back three, blood some youngsters and wants to look at Harry Winks and Harry Maguire.
But Southgate is very keen to give Butland his chance in a competitive game so that he has to deal with the pressure of a meaningful match.
He has to know how to deal with the pre-match media and get him ready so if he was called upon in a tournament then it would not be a problem.
However, it probably goes beyond that as there has long been a feeling that Southgate will eventually pick Butland ahead of Hart, having worked with him at Under-21 level.
Butland appeared to be putting