Gareth Southgate is ready to axe underachievers from his England squad

England manager Gareth Southgate is set to take a ruthless approach with his players in order to push them to the next level and will cull anyone he does not consider good enough.

Southgate has spent hours analysing where the team went wrong against the Netherlands in their Nations League semi-final defeat last week. For the second summer in a row, England have been knocked out of a major international tournament in the last four, having been beaten by Croatia at that stage in the World Cup.

Such has been Southgate’s success as England manager that there is an expectation and hunger now for the team to reach a final, but he concedes he will have to demand more from his players to do so, and some established names will not make the cut.

‘We’ve got to demand more’

“We created an environment that took a bit of pressure off the players and we want them to relax, to express themselves. We’ve talked a lot about them, but there now comes a point where, actually, we’ve got to demand more and we’ve got to find another edge,” Southgate said, joking that he had stayed up for 47 of the 48 hours between losing in the semi-final and beating Switzerland in the third place play-off. “If people can’t cope with it then they’re not going to be able to cope with it under pressure.

“I’ve reflected a lot. I’ve got to make sure that I’m constantly raising the bar with this group and we don’t accept any kind of sloppiness. I think the players want driving and they are starting to own a bit of that themselves, which is really important.”

Southgate, who has constantly focused on bringing through the younger generation and easing out older players, will travel to Italy to watch England’s Under-21s in the European Championship.

Young stars coming through

Aidy Boothroyd’s group includes Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden and Leicester City’s in-demand attacking midfielder James Maddison, who are likely to make the step up to the seniors before the finals of Euro 2020.

Fabian Delph and Kyle Walker, both 29, are both in danger of losing their squad place as they are in the older age bracket and neither performed well in Portugal.

Southgate has already shown there is no room for sentiment by dropping 28-year-old right-back Kieran Trippier, who was one of the stars of the last World Cup but has had a poor season for Tottenham Hotspur.

“All of the group have the potential to be with us but I think what we’ve got to do is keep driving, keep pushing the standards every day,” Southgate said. “It’s not just about the match days – the match days become a reflection of things which happen in training, and they are habits which take place every day.

“We’re gaining expectation. We have brought incredible support here over the past four days. That expectation is incredible and we want to deliver for them. We have to make sure that we are 100 per cent right in everything we do.”

Three in the firing line

Fabian Delph: Midfielder played very little football for Manchester City last season yet was handed starts in both Nations League games, but did not impress. Delph could find his place comes under threat from teenage City team-mate Phil Foden.

Kyle Walker: Kept on making mistakes – too many for Southgate not to be concerned about them. If Trent Alexander-Arnold maintains his form then he will take over as England’s right-back for the next decade.

John Stones: Too many errors and not enough games for his club, Manchester City. He blew his chance to impress with a hugely costly mistake against the Netherlands.