Gareth Southgate gave England’s forwards a dressing-down at half-time in the final warm-up game against Romania, leaving Jack Grealish unsure of whether he will start the first game of the European Championship on Sunday.
Grealish won the man-of-the-match award against Romania, but was one of the four forward players, along with Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, to feel Southgate’s anger.
Southgate demanded that his forwards worked harder defensively and pressed more during the second half, and he got a response, as Grealish won the penalty from which Rashford scored the winning goal.
It was not the only time over the past week that Southgate has been hard on his squad, with players put through intense training sessions, and individuals told they needed to improve at half-time of the first warm-up game against Austria.
Southgate revealed his displeasure with the work-rate of his forwards in the Romania victory, saying: “I didn’t like us without the ball in the first half, but that was the whole team. That started from the front.
“We weren’t disciplined in the way we defended. Our recovery runs were not good enough. It meant that the midfield was stretched and the back players had too many decisions to make.
“They were having to come into spaces where they shouldn’t have needed to be. Without doubt, we can improve on that.
“There is a lot of work to be done on the training ground as without a doubt we cannot give up the number of chances we did and not expect to be punished.”
The squad, into which central defender Ben White has been called as a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold, were given yesterday off to see their families and will report back for duty today to begin the preparations for the Croatia game at Wembley.
Southgate has kept his players in the dark over his plans for the team selection and formation in the opening game. Grealish, despite earning praise for his performances against Austria and Romania, is among those uncertain of their places.
On Grealish, Southgate said: “I think we’ve seen with Jack in the two games, he has those moments where he can really turn matches, and he obviously did that from the left in this instance (against Romania), we’d pushed him out to the left by that stage.
“So, it’s been very useful for him to get those match minutes under his belt, to get closer to full match sharpness and that’s been valuable for several of the players as well.”
Southgate’s biggest decisions this week will be whether to start Grealish, who plays in the forward positions with Harry Kane, and who plays in the centre of defence – whether it be a back-three or a
back-four – although the England manager claimed he was unsure of only one position.
“There’s probably one decision in my head,” said Southgate.
“But we’ve got another week to get through. Every time over the last three months I’ve pieced a squad together or a team, that’s changed rapidly and, you know, painfully with injuries.
“So, let’s hope we can get through to next Sunday without losing any more players.
“As a coaching staff, we are constantly looking at the players and looking at the opponent. Because the best team for the game with Croatia may not be the best team for the game with Scotland. We have to make sure we get those calls right.”
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]