Southgate hints at England changes once World Cup place is secured

England manager Gareth Southgate would like to experiment in next month’s World Cup qualifiers if he can balance the pursuit of progress with sealing their spot in Qatar.

Boasting maximum points from March’s Group I tripleheader, the Three Lions turned their attention back to making next year’s finals less than two months on from the heartbreaking Euro 2020 final loss to Italy.

England showed no sign of an emotional hangover as they secured back-to-back 4-0 victories against Hungary and Andorra, before travelling to Poland for what was always going to be their toughest assignment.

Harry Kane’s 30-yard strike put them on course for a victory that would have all but sealed World Cup qualification, only for Damian

Szymanski’s stoppage-time header to make it 1-1 in Warsaw.

“We knew that if we could win the game then we were pretty much in Qatar,” Southgate said after the draw.

“That isn’t the case, we’ve still got some work to do.

“We could’ve been in an even stronger position, so that is a disappointment but I can’t fault what the players have given over that period and the way they’ve responded.”

The draw allowed Albania to move second and cut the gap to four points, but bookmakers’ odds of 1/100 on England topping Group I shows it is surely a case of when rather than if they qualify.

Their biggest tests are now out of the way, with trips to Andorra and San Marino all that remain along with home matches against Hungary and

Albania.

There is little chance of Southgate allowing complacency to seep in, but the Three Lions boss recently highlighted that they only have five international meet-ups left before the 2022 World Cup gets under way.

Asked if he would like to try different things against Andorra and Hungary next month with that in mind, the England boss said: “We’ve still got to qualify for a World Cup and we have to respect that process first and foremost.

“I think we’ve always taken that view that we’ve put a lot of young players into our squad over three or four years, the last three especially.

“Butyouhavetorespectthe matchesaswellandyouhaveto make sure that we get the balance of those two things right. Ifwecandoboth,we’lldefinitely try and do that.”