Gareth Southgate says he understands why England fans booed him following their 1-0 Nations League defeat to Italy at San Siro.
The Three Lions were relegated from League A as they extended their dismal winless run to five games. They put on a dismal, uninspired display in Milan and have now gone 450 minutes without scoring from open play.
England’s form is becoming a major concern for supporters, who have begun to turn on Southgate. Last year, the 52-year-old manager became the first man to lead England to a major final since 1966 and led them to their first World Cup semi-final since 1990.
But the former defender appears to be running out of credit with fans, who jeered at him as he went to applaud the away section following their latest defeat. After the full-time whistle, Southgate told reporters (as per The Metro):
“It’s really difficult to pinpoint why we are not scoring. I think we are getting into the right areas,. We had the moments where we would have the pass but we just didn’t deliver that final piece of quality tonight.”
He added:
“I understand the reaction at the end because that’s the results we have had in this competition. It’s an understandable emotional reaction.”
Gareth Southgate refuses to heavily criticse England performance against Italy
The Three Lions have one more warm-up game against Germany before they begin their FIFA World Cup campaign against Iran in November.
Despite having more possession and more shots than the Italians, England never truly appeared as if they were going to score. But Southgate told reporters that he felt the performance was ‘a step in the right direction.’
“It’s difficult for me to be too critical of the performance. We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target. For large parts of the game we played very well. We didn’t deal with the decisive moment defensively. We had moments where we had the chance to be decisive in their final third which our quality wasn’t quite right.”
He added:
“It’s a spell where ultimately results are going to be the thing that everyone reacts to but I thought there were a lot of positives for us as a team tonight. Lots of good individual performances. I personally thought the performance is a step in the right direction. I completely understand because of the result that is not going to be the reaction.”