Gareth Southgate 'oblivious' to criticism from former England stars
Gareth Southgate has insisted he is “oblivious” to external assessments of his England team after performances at Euro 2024 were heavily criticised by former players.
Both Gary Lineker and fellow ex-England captain Alan Shearer were outspoken on Saturday about captain Harry Kane and the team’s overall display in the 1-1 draw against Denmark.
Lineker labelled the performance “s***” on his ‘The Rest is Football’ podcast, having said that Kane “needs to do a lot better”.
When asked about the comments, Southgate said: “That is the world we are in, I am oblivious to it, it is not important to me at all.
'I am oblivious to it,' says England Manager Gareth Southgate
"What is important to me is that I’ve got to guide this group of players confidently through the terrain that is a tournament.
“We are a high-profile team with expectations and we fully understand everything we do will be scrutinised so I am very comfortable living that life and I don’t need to engage in external because I am my own biggest critic, I think our players are as well.
“There is nothing to be gained from us that is going to help improve us listening to external criticism.
"We know what we have done well, we are very honest about that. We know when we need to be better, we are brutally honest about that. That is how you work as a team, that is how you coach a team and that is how you improve performance.”
Match of the Day host Lineker said journalists were “stirring the pot” after Harry Kane was asked about being on the end of criticism from former England players.
Kane hit back during a press conference on Sunday, saying former players have a responsibility to keep their opinions in check as they have been part of England’s long trophy drought.
Lineker carried on the back-and-forth during the latest episode of the Rest is Football podcast, suggesting journalists were too scared to ask their own questions.
“Made the headlines again haven’t I? Because journalists being journalists, being a bit tricky in these things and trying to wind up our footballers,” he said.
“We’ve been critical of England’s performances, as has pretty much every journalist, but you know how it happens.
“We’ve talked about this a few times before, about journalists not being brave enough to ask their own questions.
“I guarantee whoever that was was probably critical themselves. They do it a) to stir the pot and b) because they’re too scared to ask a question from their own selves.
“It puts Harry on the spot. I thought he answered it fine.
“There was one bit there where he says that we have responsibilities as ex-England players, that we should know better and that we never won anything or words to that effect.
“Fine, he’s absolutely right. But I will say one thing. The last thing in the world we want to be is downbeat and critical. We want the England team to perform well on the pitch. The best punditry of all is when England play well.”
Shearer also accepts Kane’s retort but believes the national team skipper has the power to have the final say.
He said on the podcast: “It’s important we never get personal. That’s the most important thing.
“They were terrible and we have to say that. If England were brilliant we’d say they were brilliant, that’s the way it is.
“As a player, you always get the right of reply on the pitch. I have no problem what we said, I wouldn’t take anything back we said.
“England were really poor. I think the vast majority of the country, and even the boys in the squad, will know they were awful against Denmark. There were hardly any positives.”
Shearer believes Kane should still be in the team against Slovenia on Tuesday, despite calls for the Bayern Munich forward to be dropped, but feels that Gareth Southgate must tinker with his tactics and selection.
“I disagree with that view: don’t leave him out. You cannot leave your captain and your main goalscorer out of the team,” he added in his Athletic column.
“It is not a case of leaving Harry out. Instead, you get legs around him — runners off the ball. I don’t care how experienced you are, all players need a little bit of help now and again and I’m sure he and Gareth will have been analysing the performance since Thursday.
“Harry is brilliant at coming deep - he loves doing it - but he did it too much against Denmark. The issue is that he is coming into traffic and getting in the way of his own players when he does come into midfield areas.
“If he is going to drop deep, we know he needs runners ahead of him. How many times did we see him picking passes for Son Heung-min bursting beyond him in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt?”
Analysis from ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott
Without wishing to extend what is a rather minor spat between the England team and some television pundits, I think it’s important to point out some of the inaccuracies in Gary Lineker’s response to Harry Kane’s comments yesterday.
Firstly Kane was not "put on the spot" as Lineker suggests, the England captain knew the question was coming and decided to answer it the way he did. Kane could have said that everyone is entitled to their opinion and left it there, but he didn’t, he expanded on his answer to tell everyone exactly how he and by extension, the squad felt.
Also, Lineker accused journalists of not being 'brave enough to ask their own questions', suggesting they hid behind what he said and were stirring the pot. Again this is not true, if Lineker had listened to the whole media conference he would have heard reporters, including from his own BBC, asking those difficult questions about Kane’s form, his fitness, the team’s poor performance, the confusion over pressing - everything was addressed.
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