Southgate: Poland still a threat without star man
background, and Charlotte (Cowie) in our organisation is doing a really fantastic job, but it takes time. It is easy to get small amounts of data and come to the wrong conclusions.”
Poland will be without their alltime top goalscorer and captain Robert Lewandowski due to a knee injury, but Southgate insisted: “I think Poland have some excellent players and we would be naive to think they would be less of a threat.
“If we take our foot off the gas for one minute we will be hurt. We need to be ready for the game, which we are. A team isn’t just about one player and we have to prepare for the highest level.”
Declan Rice was alongside boss Southgate for the press conference, but the West Ham midfielder does not believe he is a guaranteed pick for the Euros. He said: “No, I don’t think you can ever think like that as a player because we have such a good squad and such strong competition in the middle.”
Rice regularly interacts with his followers on Twitter and Instagram, but various other key figures in the sport are coming off social media due to a lack of action when it comes to racism on the platform.
Ex-Arsenal and Barcelona forward Thierry Henry deactivated his accounts on Saturday and described social media as “too toxic to ignore”.
Rice added: “Something definitely has to be done. There has been way too much, in the last year especially, with social media abuse and things said on social media.
“For someone like me who runs my account and has that interaction and love with the fans, I don’t have any problems with social media and it is important someone like me can have that interaction with West Ham fans, England fans, but Thierry Henry has boycotted it.
“I see (Gareth) Bale has come out and said something so maybe it is a decision that will be spoken about (among the England players) in the future, but at the moment, no.”
Elsewhere tonight, Scotland host the Faroe Islands, and Northern Ireland welcome Bulgaria.