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England boss Gareth Southgate says team must ‘show resilience’

Manager Gareth Southgate has said it was a “great challenge” leading England during “a difficult time” and they will need “resilience to come through” it.

England were relegated to the Nations League’s second tier with a 1-0 defeat by Italy in Milan on Friday.

They face Germany on Monday having gone five games without a victory for the first time since 2014.

“I’m not the first coach to go through a difficult time in terms of results and criticism,” said Southgate.

“That is part of the territory. For me, it’s a great challenge to lead the team through a moment like this.

“You are not going to have six years as we’ve had without a spell where you are going to have some tough results, and you’ve got to show resilience to come through those moments.”#

READ ALSO:EPL: Man Utd boss Ten Hag on beating Liverpool with ‘long ball’

Southgate led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and a first European Championship final in 2021.

However, they have failed to score from open play in more than eight hours, with Harry Kane’s penalty against Germany their only goal in the past five games.

Southgate said: “The results haven’t been at the level we want, that we require, so no matter what job you have in football that would be the case.

“Of course with the national team that noise is going to be louder and more widespread – I understand that.

“I’m not hiding from it. We are not enjoying it but we have to keep doing the right things every day to keep improving.”

READ ALSO:EPL: Man Utd boss Ten Hag on beating Liverpool with ‘long ball’

England’s game against Germany at Wembley is their last outing before the 2022 World Cup, which starts in Qatar in November.

Winger Raheem Sterling said: “It’s been a tough period but I don’t think any of the boys will be thinking that we don’t have a good chance in the winter – that’s the belief that we have as a group.

“The results don’t show that right now but I strongly believe, with the boys, that when we go over there in the winter that we’ll have a good one.

“There’s no need to panic. These results are bad but we’ve got good things to come.”

 

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