Gareth Southgate will blast away the negativity surrounding England by telling his players they can make this the best period in the team’s history by winning the World Cup.
England’s 26-man squad fly to Qatar on Tuesday as one of the favourites but recent performances have cast doubt over their chances. They faced heavy criticism after toiling in the Nations League this year and a series of stodgy attacking performances has increased the pressure on Southgate, who was booed by supporters after September’s 1-0 defeat in Italy.
However the head coach, who was also jeered by supporters after his side’s 4-0 defeat by Hungary at Molineux in June, is determined to keep the mood positive. England’s recent tournament efforts – runs to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of the 2020 European Championship – are prominent in Southgate’s thinking. He also saw England’s women become European champions in July – the country’s first major trophy since the men won the World Cup in 1966.
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“With the players we want to talk to them about the excitement of going to a World Cup,” Southgate said. “We understand the need to comment on the off-field things that surround this tournament, but we want the players to feel that enthusiasm that they’ve had since kids.
“We want to fuel that. The first couple of days we won’t be on the training pitch, bar a couple [of players] that will need to do something. We want them to transition from a hectic club schedule to thinking about England. We want to talk to them about the fact that this, whatever happens over the next four weeks, has been the second-best period for English football. We can make it the best.
“It’s the challenge mindset. How can we take the supporters on another journey, like the one they loved four years ago and loved last summer? That’s why we do it and that’s what makes playing for England special.”
Southgate, whose side play their first game in Group B against Iran a week tomorrow, does not see the recent backlash against him as relevant. “I don’t think what it was for me is important at this stage,” he said.
“My only focus is, how do I help this team to have a brilliant tournament? And I think we’ve got a great chance. We’ve perhaps, as we did before Russia, qualified and managed expectations at the same time.
“I know what this group of players have been capable of. They’ve been to the deep reaches of tournaments. They know what that feels like. They know they can do that again. What people say or think about me is irrelevant. My job is to free the players of any of that.”
One of the players who embodies joy and adventure is Jude Bellingham. The 19-year-old midfielder is expected to partner Declan Rice against Iran.
“He has tremendous maturity for his age,” Southgate said. “Mature in how he works, how he trains, how he speaks. He competes – it is probably the thing we love about him more than anything else. That has a line at times and undoubtedly there will be moments, while he is young, that it will be crossed. But he’s a very exciting player and he’s one we’ve got a good body of experience into early.
“He went to the Euros – we thought it was a good experience for him, but he wanted more. We were thinking for a 17-year-old: ‘This is a really good transition.’ But his mentality is: ‘No, no, no.’ He wants to start, he wants to take corners, he wants to captain the team.”
Southgate remains mindful of the group staying clear of Covid. England will consider how to let players meet their families. “We’re still a little bit fluid on that,” Southgate said. “We almost prefer to under-promise and over-deliver. We would like it to happen, we think it is a significant part of a team feeling relaxed. But at the moment none of us know what the transmission rate is likely to be out there.
“Families are obviously going to be mixing in bigger numbers with people at the stadiums and things like that. We’re going to have to track that. There might be ways of doing that more securely outside. We have some plans in place.”
Southgate said England’s training schedule this week could depend on the heat in Qatar. “We believe it won’t be too severe,” he said. “But that can vary and we have to assess because while a lot of our games are later, the first one isn’t and we need some adaptation. We’re north Europeans so we are not going to adapt totally to the environment. We have to manage that training schedule really carefully.”
