Despite heightened scrutiny following a dismal Nations League campaign, Gareth Southgate maintains he is still “the appropriate person” to guide England into this year’s World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a five-match losing streak in which they lost twice to Hungary, including 4-0 at home, and failed to score in open play, England was demoted from the top division of the Nations League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following that Wembley shock in June, the audience turned against Southgate, and after Friday’s 1-0 loss to Italy, there were boos once more from visiting supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the manager who last summer guided England to the Euro 2020 final and the 2018 World Cup semi-finals is sure that “stability” prior to the competition is in England’s best interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m the right person to take the team into the tournament,\u201d said Southgate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more stable that way, without a doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think (the) performance (against Italy) was far off and I know that\u2019s going to get derision just because we\u2019re on the back of a run of defeats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
England’s final competitive match before the World Cup begins on November 20 is against Germany at Wembley on Monday, but Southgate thinks his team will profit from having played top-tier opposition before Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe younger players, in particular, that have been in these games will have learned a lot from them,\u201d Southgate added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the past we\u2019ve had runs of friendlies, or whatever the matches are, and then we\u2019ve gone into tournaments and that\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve hit high-level opposition and it\u2019s hit us in the face quite often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow we know the level, now we know what we\u2019ve got to improve and we\u2019ll be better placed for that by having had the quality of matches that we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 21, England will play its opening World Cup match against Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite heightened scrutiny following a dismal Nations League campaign, Gareth Southgate maintains he is still “the appropriate person” to guide England into this year’s World Cup in Qatar. After a five-match losing streak in which they lost twice to Hungary, including 4-0 at home, and failed to score in open play, England was demoted from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-ph"],"yoast_head":"\n