Gareth Southgate showed the England team images of Italy, Denmark and Hungary celebrating results at Euro 2024 before the side's 0-0 draw with Slovenia, to make a point to the players not to be afflicted by the negativity outside the camp. He is convinced persistence will mean, "in the end things, will turn".
The squad's qualification for the last 16 culminated in more boos about performance, with Southgate himself having plastic cups thrown at him. The manager has repeatedly referenced the "unique environment" around this England, which he later stated was "expectation" but stated the extent of the criticism is "probably because of him".
Southgate consequently felt it was all the more important to remind the players of the joy tournament progress is supposed to be about. While the eventual fan response mere hours after he showed the photos didn't exactly help, the players were more upbeat after the 0-0 draw. They similarly believe they are improving, and were buoyed by the second-half performance against Slovenia.
"I have to keep the players right on track," Southgate said. "On the day of the game I showed them pictures of Italy celebrating their qualification with their fans, of Hungary celebrating when they didn’t even know if they were through. Denmark celebrating a draw against us and they were on two points.
“Our world is different at the moment and I feel that is probably because of me. I have to help the players as much as I possibly can because we brought the joy back into playing for England and we have to be very careful of where we head with it.”
Regarding the abuse he suffered, Southgate said it wouldn't cow him going out to acknowledge the fans. He feels it is more important when he is asking the players to front up now in the way that wins tournaments.
"I’m not going to hide from it,” he added. “I’ve got to show my players the fearlessness we are asking of them on the pitch. So I will continue to do that. We are playing for big stakes, we are trying to do something that has never been done before and so we have to have a mentality that we are prepared to walk towards those challenges.
"We need the whole team. I’m proud of what the players did, they showed the right mentality, they showed bravery in a difficult environment at times, they showed patience and we didn’t quite get what they deserved from the game but they have to keep going and, in the end, things will turn."
Southgate was also asked about another frustrating performance from Jude Bellingham, but refused to get drawn into any comments that result in headlines about his young star.
"I will have those messages with him rather than plaster them over the papers,” he explained.
"It’s about the team. We have to play as a team at all times and some days the space will be where there is more opportunity for our wingers, as Slovenia defended narrow. Our wingers could show what they could do. It was a little bit harder to play through the middle. I thought Phil [Foden] and Bukayo [Saka] did very well and Cole [Palmer] obviously had a good impact when he came on.
“That is what a team is. For everyone else, you have to focus on individuals but for me it is about the team functioning and we were closer to where we want to be."
