STERLING’S ON THE DEFENSIVE
Chelsea ace backs his boss’s bunch of five
debate has raged most of the summer and escalated on Friday after another tepid display in the 1-0 defeat by Italy in Milan.
From pundit to pub bore, everybody seems to be asking why England don’t ditch the back five and experiment with a more attack-minded flat back four.
Pinged
So I put the same question to Raheem Sterling – only to be pinged with the most definitive of conversation-stoppers. “Because the manager wants to play a back five,” the
Chelsea forward said.
That was a conversation stopper because the FA media officer stepped in at that point to move the discussion along.
But Sterling had already let slip that England players spent most of their session at Tottenham’s training ground yesterday trying different ways to free up attacking players with that extra central defender in the team. “Even today we had to go over things to try to find where we can find that extra man with this five at the back,” Sterling revealed. “Do we put a midfielder higher up in the build-up? “The manager is working on things to get us that space in the attacking third to try and change that but it’s not a time to panic and say, ‘We haven’t scored, we haven’t scored!’
“We need a good performance and one of our big players to step up and change that narrative.
“That is more than likely what will happen.”
Southgate is not stubborn; he has fixed upon this system because he has calculated it gives England their best chance of progressing at
Qatar.
Given his track record — those two semi-finals and a final — perhaps he is owed a bit of loyalty.
Certainly, the players he has melded together from the void after Euro 2016 are keen to show him some — not least Sterling, who has been there for the entire journey.
“Like everything, it has to come from the boys,” he said.
“We have said that these results over the past few months have not been good enough and we need to take responsibility.
“We have to have that winning mentality.
Push
“When the boys have been speaking, the message has been to get more out of each other, push each other, take criticism.
“I know there has been a lot on Gareth and what he has been doing — formations and whatnot — but the performances have not been right.
“It’s not nice to see your manager getting criticised.
“But it’s also not something we are surprised by.
“We are expected to win. We are expected to produce good football and over these past couple of months, it has not been up to the level.”
When England played Germany at Euro 2020 the performance was exemplary, a curse appeared to have been buried and the country remained on course for their first major final in 55 years.
“Football is brutal at times,” Sterling said.
“Yes, it was a great tournament last summer but once you produce like that, people expect more.
“Then when you put results like our recent ones on the table, they’re going to be asking questions.
“It’s down to us to change that and make people realise we are the real deal.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s England frustration, meanwhile, appears rooted in Southgate’s lack of belief in the Liverpool full-back. (right)
The manager does not deny the qualities of the 23-yearold, below, but prefers the “profile” of his competitors for the role.
Moreover, despite his club success, Southgate appeared to knock back calls to put him into his starting line-up, insisting it was his head on block.
“He’s a fantastic footballer and does have a fantastic range of passing, but if we play with wing-backs, Kieran Trippier and Reece James are also exceptional with the ball,” said Southgate.
Major
“They’ve all been to Champions League finals, some of them have been to latter stages of major tournaments with us.
“Trent’s won the league, Kyle Walker’s won the league, Trippier’s won the Spanish league, there are so many good attributes about them.
“It’s a really difficult position to make decisions on, but we have to go with the ones we believe.
“And ultimately I’ll be judged on the outcome, as we know.”