Southgate making plans for finals

England still have work to do to secure World Cup qualification, but preparations for Russia are well under way as Gareth Southgate attempts to prevent their all-too-frequent major tournament struggles.

Having gone out of at the group stage in Brazil before finishing their malaria tablets three years ago, the Three Lions bowed out of Euro 2016 at the last-16 juncture to Iceland.

Those failings are fresh in the mind of the man now in charge, with the former England defender outlining to his desire to become the world’s best upon his permanent appointment as manager.

Such lofty ambition means all decisions have been made with the finals in Russia in mind, even if Saturday’s 2-2 draw in Scotland saw their lead at the top of Group F cut to just two points.

“That is the challenge for us,” Southgate said when asked about improving performances on the major stages.

“The challenge is how do we become the best team in the world? We have to improve in all areas to do that.

“We can only take steps at a time and work as a team to improve every area, whether that’s technical, tactical, psychological.

“But we are identifying those areas and we’ll keep working on it.

“Now you can’t take your eye off the immediate goal of being able to get there, but we also can’t wait for qualifying and wait until next March before we start working towards things.”

The Football Association has been looking at potential training bases in Russia as logistical planning begins ahead of the World Cup.

The England boss handed Harry Kane the captaincy in Scotland and he rose to the occasion, firing home an injury-time leveller to rescue a point for the visitors.

“I think it was an important moment for the team, important moment individually for Harry ,” Southgate said.

“Brilliant for him that in a pressure moment he executed a skill that I think he made look a lot easier than actually it was.”

Gareth Southgate: looking for improvements in all areas.