Southgate’s prospects not helped by dismal England display
LONDON (Reuters) – England interim manager Gareth Southgate is halfway through his audition for the full-time job, but his hopes were hardly helped by an ugly performance in a 0-0 draw in Slovenia on Tuesday.
Southgate claims he inherited a “mess” after replacing Sam Allardyce, who lasted only 67 days in the job, and the display in Ljubljana was anything but pretty.
England rode its luck to stay top of Group F and on course for the 2018 Russia World Cup, thanks to some outstanding goalkeeping by Joe Hart, but there were few positives in a shapeless display that classier opposition than 67th-ranked Slovenia would have punished.
His decision to drop skipper and England’s all-time leading scorer Wayne Rooney in favor of Eric Dier was hardly a qualified success with the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder almost gifting Slovenia an early goal.
Jordan Henderson, who wore the captain’s armband, struggled to exert much authority and he too was guilty of a careless pass that would have led to a Slovenia goal after the break but for another fine intervention by the overworked Hart.
When Rooney did finally come off the bench in the 73rd minute he almost gave his side an undeserved lead with a shot that flashed past the post, but there was precious little to excite the visiting fans as England labored to a draw.
Southgate’s first game since replacing disgraced Allardyce was a nondescript 2-0 win over Malta last weekend.
Now he must wait another month before a qualifier at home to Scotland and a friendly versus Spain, after which the English Football Association is expected to make a decision on his future.
“I can’t thank the players and support team enough for the backing I have had,” a subdued Southgate said.
“We wanted six points but we have taken over a mess and had to steady the ship. We are on track. I am going to have a couple of days to go and sleep.”
There will be much for Southgate to ponder when he wakes up.
Not least the amount of times his players were guilty of giving away possession – an age-old English fault.
He will also have to wrestle with the inevitable Rooney debate and solve England’s failure to score goals or even create chances. They only had three shots on target on Tuesday.
Southgate tried to look on the bright side though even if the morning sports pages were likely to be critical.
“To have to deal with the amount of things we’ve had to deal with over a period of time, the objective is to get the points on the board for the country,” he said.
“We still sit top of the group and I know people will be disappointed we haven’t won but in the long term we are ahead in the group and we’ve got two difficult away games out of the way so everything is in our hands.”
Meanwhile, world champions Germany struck twice in four first-half minutes to beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in its 2018 World Cup qualifier on Tuesday and stretch its winning run in Group C with its best-ever start in a tournament qualification.
Julian Draxler’s 13th minute strike put it ahead and Sami Khedira added another goal as Germany killed off the game for its third win in three qualifiers in its best start to a World Cup or Euro qualification with no goals conceded.
Germany, which made three times as many passes as the Irish, is top with nine points, two clear of Azerbaijan, which drew 0-0 away to the Czech Republic. The Irish stay third on four points.
Northern Ireland, which battled hard in a 1-0 Euro 2016 group stage defeat by Germany, was no match for the hosts, who had over 75 percent possession and were never really threatened.
“We did our job. We got the six points we wanted from our [latest] two qualifiers,” said Loew, who equaled former Germany coach Sepp Herberger’s record 94 wins.
“Northern Ireland were defending deep in their half and it was at times difficult for us.”
“We were in a good run after our win over the Czechs [on Saturday]. I wanted two or three goals in the first half to be able to then rest some players.”
Loew fielded an unchanged team after their 3-0 win over the Czech Republic at the weekend, with Mario Goetze once more thrust in the forward role.
The hosts wanted an early goal to avoid a repeat of June’s struggle to beat the Irish, and got their first big chance after only three minutes when Goetze’s point-blank header saw keeper Michael McGovern pull off a spectacular one-handed save.
It needed another 10 minutes to open the scoring with Draxler slotting home a low shot after picking up the ball on the edge of the box following a fine passing move.
The unmarked Khedira doubled its lead four minutes later, nodding in Mats Hummels’ header as the hosts found little resistance from the overwhelmed Irish.
It was an even more one-sided affair after the break with Germany launching attack after attack but struggling to get the ball into a crowded box.
Late pressure yielded shots from substitute Ilkay Guendogan and manof-the-match Khedira but both their efforts sailed wide.