England’s players are “100 per cent” behind manager Gareth Southgate after it has been suggested that this could be his last tournament in charge of the nation team.
Southgate has been one of England’s greatest managers, leading the country to the semi-finals of the Russia World Cup in 2018 and reaching the final of Euro 2020, where they were beaten by Italy.
The team must achieve something no England side has done before to reach successive World Cup semi-finals — beat an elite nation in a knockout game away from England.
Southgate is, it should be noted, contracted until the end of Euro 2024, which is set to take place in Germany.
English Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham made clear during Euro 2020 that the governing body wanted Southgate to extend his contract with them and it was finalised after the tournament. And the squad are hopeful he stays on after Qatar.
“We all love Gareth,” right-back Kieran Trippier said. “Gareth is a fantastic manager, I’m sure Gareth and certainly we are focused on France. [But] we are 100 per cent behind Gareth, 100 per cent.”
England’s chances on Saturday were boosted by the return of Declan Rice to training on Thursday. Rice has become an integral part of Southgate’s starting XI but missed training on Wednesday due to an illness. It had raised concerned that one of England’s key players could miss the France game, but Trippier said that his team-mate “was in high spirits as he always is and he trained well”.
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What time England vs France kicks off, and how to watch the World Cup quarter-final live on TV08 December, 2022England’s players are yet to be booked in their four World Cup games, meaning Southgate has not had his team selection disrupted by unhelpful suspensions. And Trippier revealed it is something the team have discussed.
“We’ve seen over the years especially since Russia where if you pick up silly yellow cards, if you get two you miss a game,” he said. “You’ve seen in this tournament people pick up yellows. I feel like us as a team are a really disciplined team and we have spoken about not wanting to miss a game, picking up stupid yellows for throwing the ball away or stuff like that.
“Obviously you might need to take a tactical foul and you can’t help that. But it’s always important you keep 11 men on the pitch, it’s always important you don’t give silly yellow cards away and have important players missing massive games. I feel like we are a disciplined team, strong characters in this team and I don’t think we’ve picked up a yellow.”
He added: “As the games go on and you go into the round of 16, if you’d already picked up a yellow card against, say, Wales you could be missing the quarter-final. We have spoken about it a little bit more as the tournament’s gone on but I think we all know as players that we don’t want to miss a game over a silly booking. I think from the Wales game going forward, it was critical that we didn’t want a player getting two yellows and missing a game.”
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