‘THEY WERE SUCH BASIC ERRORS THAT YOU HAVE TO LEARN FROM THEM’
ENGLAND’S defensive mistakes gave Gareth Southgate food for thought on a night when his attackers’ devastating play proved enough to see off Kosovo in a thrilling European Championship qualifier in Southampton.
The Three Lions’ manager was at pains to stress in the build-up to Tuesday’s match that international football’s new boys were not only far better than their 120th place in the world rankings, but the toughest Group A test to date.
While England’s march towards Euro 2020 continued with a fourth win from as many qualifiers, the pulsating 5-3 win over Kosovo left Southgate with plenty to ponder.
Jadon Sancho’s two goals complemented Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane efforts, along with Mergim Vojvoda’s own goal, in a rip-roaring first half that started with Valon Berisha capitalising on a shocking mistake by defender Michael Keane after only 34 seconds.
Berisha scored a second goal in a sloppy second half that saw Harry Maguire foolishly give away a penalty that Vedat Muriqi scored – unlike the normally reliable Kane, whose spot-kick miss summed up a strange night in Southampton.
“Well, bizarre, really,” Southgate said of the performance by his side. “The outstanding features and the poor features are apparent to everybody, so we don’t need to get the video out and go back through it.
“Poor individual mistakes, a poor start to the game,” he added. “The small period after half-time – ridiculous mistakes, poor decisions, lack of covering back.”
Asked if the individual errors were just a lack of concentration rather than anything more fundamental, the England boss replied: “I think that’s something that we have to consider over a period of time because there were obviously mistakes that were concerning, really.”
He added: “Whether it was the
intensity of the game, whether it was the pressure, I don’t know. We’ve got to reflect on that, but they were such basic errors, really, that you have to learn from them.”
There are no such problems at the other end of the field, with his attacking trio showing just why Southgate considers his forwards among the world’s best.
“Raheem, Jadon and Harry were outstanding,” he said. “Raheem’s two performances [in the past week’s qualifiers] have been of the highest level. I think he’s been almost unstoppable – his awareness of where defenders were, his ability to ride challenges, his vision and desire to get in on goal, and unselfish play as well – I couldn’t speak highly enough of the way he played.
“Jadon’s performance was at that level as well. He worked really hard for the team without the ball and showed the ability he has to go past people, to be calm in tight areas. So that part of our game was absolutely outstanding.”
Kosovo head coach Bernard Challandes was pleased with his side’s display at St Mary’s Stadium. “OK, we’ve decided to try to play football, to take risk, and we’ve seen in the first half how strong England are,” the veteran Swiss coach said.
“We’ve tried, we’ve played, we’ve also lost some unnecessary balls and we’ve paid immediately because the counter-attacks of England were very, very beautiful.
“Our idea was immediately to press England for surprise and, OK, we win this ball – or they give us the ball – and it’s 1-0. It’s perfect for us, but after clearly England were very strong and played a very good half.
“Second half was good for us. If I do British humour, we’ve won 2-0 – and who has won 2-0 against England in one half?”