Southgate learns from World Cup winner Morgan
Gareth Southgate has been picking the brains of Eoin Morgan, captain of the Cricket World Cup winners, as he plots how to turn England into European champions. But Trent Alexander-arnold has admitted they will not have a chance of winning next summer’s Euros if they do not defend better than in their latest outing against Kosovo.
Morgan has this week visited England’s St George’s Park training base and chatted to Southgate and his players about this summer’s one-day success. Having arrived on Tuesday, when he spoke with Southgate, Morgan stayed over and sat in yesterday on a team meeting, in which he said a few words, and watched training.
England can clinch their qualification for the Euros by beating Czech Republic tomorrow, leaving Southgate to prepare for the finals.
Southgate is keen to tap into other sports and has previously swapped ideas with Eddie Jones, England’s rugby union coach, as well as studying the All Blacks, American football and basketball.
But Alexander-arnold, the Liverpool right-back, believes the team need to focus on themselves during this international break, with defence the biggest issue.
Alexander-arnold was part of the back four who conceded three goals to Kosovo. Harry Maguire and Michael Keane played in central defence and, despite their problems for their clubs, the pair are expected to get another chance against Czech Republic in Prague.
“If we want to be regarded as one of the best teams in Europe and win the Euros, our goals conceded must be fewer,” Alexander-arnold said. “As defenders, as a team and unit, we know where to improve and where to work on.”
Southgate will run through the lessons of the Kosovo game and where the defenders must improve and Alexander-arnold added: “As players, we analyse our games and know what is going right and what is not. Some games, it just happens. We will analyse what went wrong and try to make sure it does not happen again.”