SOUTHGATE SATISFIED WITH PERFORMANCE AGAINST BRAZIL

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM

England Manager Gareth Southgate expressed his delight at the way his young England team performed overall in their two friendlies against Germany and Brazil. He was speaking after the goalless draw against the five-time World Champions Brazil.  “They were two completely difference performances. Friday night I thought we used the ball really well. Tonight (Nov. 14) we looked anxious on the ball. I think the threat of the consequence that you know if you turn it over, which was on display a couple of times. Tonight the defence collectively and the resilience and the spirit collectively and some of the individual performances were absolutely outstanding” Said Southgate.

He went on further to say: “I am probably more pleased about tonight because we have played I think the best team in the world who put their full team out and posed you all sort of different problems that individually you have got to stand up to and we have come out with a really creditable result. We can look at areas we can improve and we need to improve.”

He also said: “ We have found some positives in players who have played at this level for the first time like the likes of Harry McGuire.  It is not going to get much tougher than it was for them tonight. They would gain huge confidence and what they have given would stand them in really good stead. They have come through with two clean sheets and I think the system has worked well.”

Southgate acknowledged that Brazil were the better team but he said: “Collectively they had control of the game tonight but we have limited both teams to a few clear cut chances. It would have been an injustice tonight but we could have pinched the game tonight at the end with the chances we had. “

It was pointed out that although England had limited the best two teams in the world to a few chances, that they had failed to score in both games. The England manager said: “They have built those teams over a long period of time. The experience in the Brazilian team today is way ahead of ours.  We had Dominic Solanke come on and I don’t think he has started a premiership game. We are having to approach things differently and we are building. Brazil are pretty close to the finished article. They are a settled team and it is going to take some team to stop them next summer.  We are at a different point of our journey but we will take huge belief from what we have done.”