Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw has admitted that he and his England teammates want to continue working with manager Gareth Southgate, regardless of the outcome of Saturday's huge World Cup quarter-final against France in Qatar.
After comfortably seeing off Senegal in the last-16 on Sunday, England must now get the better of the reigning World Cup holders to try and reach the semi-finals of a third major tournament in succession. The Three Lions reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup four-and-a-half years ago and reached the final of the European Championship last year.
Although an elusive trophy is still missing under Southgate, England have made significant progress under the former Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough defender. Prior to the 2018 World Cup, the Three Lions had won just one knockout match at a major tournament since 2004, compared to the six they have won in the last three tournaments under Southgate.
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While there is no denying that England have had favourable routes in recent tournaments, they have still managed to succeed where Three Lions teams of the past would have failed. France, of course, will offer the sternest test Southgate's side have faced at a major tournament under his stewardship, but even if it does end in heartbreak, Shaw has thrown his support behind the idea of the England manager staying on beyond the World Cup.
"Of course we want to keep working with him," admitted Shaw. "The type of success he has brought has not been seen for many years.
"I understand we haven't won [anything], and we're disappointed with that, but we're going in the right direction and things are really looking up. Of course there's going to be speculation if we don't win on Saturday, but we don't want to speak like that and be negative.
"We're confident and we'll wait and see until after the game."
Ahead of the start of the tournament in Qatar there had been growing calls The Football Association to relieve Southgate of his duties following a failed Nations League campaign. However, as disappointing as it was, Southgate is continuing to succeed and defy the odds at the tournaments that matter.
Shaw continued: "Definitely leading into this tournament, the way things have gone, he hasn't got the credit he deserves. If you look at our past tournament experiences, the past two tournaments have obviously been the best in years, for a very long time.
"A few bad performances were not solely down to him, they were down to us as players, and got him some unfair criticism. They shouldn't have been solely blamed on him.
"This tournament, we're top scorers, we still have another gear to go up to, to get better and better. The signs are good and there should be no doubt about him at all."
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