Gareth Southgate acknowledged that he “understand” the reaction of England supporters after he was booed for the second time in four months following England’s loss to Italy on Friday night.
Prior to Monday’s match against Germany at Wembley, England had gone five games without a victory, their worst stretch of play in eight years. As a result, pressure is mounting on Southgate, who was jeered by supporters at Wembley in June after a humiliating 4-0 loss to Hungary. And the under-fire England manager was again met with boos from the 4,000 traveling England fans when he saluted them following the final whistle.
And he said that he understood the supporters’ “emotional” response to yet another sad outcome. When questioned about the jeers, Southgate stated: “Because of our performance in this competition, I can comprehend the conclusion’s reaction. It is a reasonable emotional response.”
However, despite accepting criticism of himself, he was sure that England performed better versus Italy. He added: “It is impossible to criticize the performance excessively… Personally, I thought the performance was a step in the right direction, but I appreciate that, due to the outcome, this will not be the external reaction.
“The reaction will be determined by the outcome, but tonight’s performance won’t be far off. I must keep the players focused and unaffected by distractions.”
Declan Rice concurred with Southgate, stating that despite the loss, England had performed better than in their prior matches. The West Ham star continued: “Every time we enter a tournament, our objective is to win the group and each game.
“In the Nations League, we have fallen below our norms, but tonight’s performance wasn’t terrible. One opportunity and one goal for them, I thought we controlled the game, passed the ball beautifully, and got into nice zones, but in the end we lacked that last touch. The performance in the fall was far better than in the summer.”