Southgate brushes off VAR concerns to focus on progressing to last 16
By Simon Peach
England have taken concerns over video assistant referees ( VAR) to FIFA and boss Gareth Southgate has been reassured about the system ahead of today’s match against Panama.
A week that started with a lastgasp winner against Tunisia ends with a shot at reaching the knockout phase. Victory against the Central Americans would be enough to assure the Three Lions of qualification from Group G before facing Belgium.
Southgate played down the controversial publication of assistant manager Steve Holland’s training notes, as well as tempering concerns over the sweltering heat in Nizhny Novgorod and officiating in Russia.
Questions over VAR only increased after Monday’s 2-1 win against Tunisia, but the England manager is satisfied with FIFA’s clarification after the Football Association went to the world governing body.
“Dan ( Ashworth, FA technical director) has had correspondence with the head of the referees, and we’re comfortable with the responses,” Southgate said.
“My view is most things that have been referred to the VAR have ended up with the correct decisions.
“There’s always this element of which bits are going to be refereed and which bits aren’t that seems to be open to interpretation.
“It really isn’t something we can control. We’ve just got to accept whatever decisions are given by the referee on the field or the VAR officials.
“It’s a bit of a different dynamic for everybody, but we’ve got to abide by whatever decisions are given and make sure we keep focus, which was what pleased me the other night.
“A penalty went against us, but our response was good, we kept our discipline.
“Emails were exchanged, and Dan asked for some clarity and we were happy with the responses. No big issues, really.”
The heat could be as much as an issue as refereeing as England look to reach the last 16 in sweltering Nizhny Novgorod.
Panama arrived in the city on Friday and trained at the stadium on the eve of the game, whereas the Three Lions’ first taste of playing in the energy-sapping heat and humidity – considerably different to their Repino base – will come today.
“We never train at the stadium before any of our qualifiers and I think it’s fairly typical for most of the teams when they play in the Champions League,” Southgate said.
“When I came to the FIFA workshop, they were quite keen for teams not to train at the stadiums to protect the pitches.
“It makes sense for us to train earlier in the day, be able to recover and then travel.
“So, really, it’s about the flow of the day and getting our training done to leave maximum time for physical recovery before kick-off.
“The heat is, of course, different in different parts of the country and we just have to adapt to that.
“We’ve just got to cope with that and I feel it is important that we are a team that keep possession of the ball, so in the heat that will be key in the moments when we need to attack with the ball and the moments where maybe we rest with possession.”
Southgate says England will have “22 players available” on Sunday, with the thigh strain sustained by Dele Alli against Tunisia likely to see Ruben Loftus-Cheek come in.
The emergence of assistant Holland’s training note – captured by a photographer – led to talk that Marcus Rashford could replace Raheem Sterling against Panama.
It is a match the manager is not taking lightly as England prepared to face the side ranked 55th in the world.
“We’v e seen a l re a dy th e difficulty big countries in terms of rankings have had in terms breaking down lower- ranked teams,” Southgate added.
“That’s been a theme right the way through, so there’s no way there’s any complacency in the way we’ve prepared for the game.
“The situation in the group is a healthy one for us, but we have to focus on our performance.”