Raheem Sterling has leapt to the defence of England manager Gareth Southgate, who was booed by fans during their 4-0 defeat to Hungary.
England were winless in their four Nations League games this month, using the fixtures to rotate his squad but seeing performances suffer as a result. Against Hungary, England were particularly under-par, suffering their heaviest home defeat in years.
Southgate took full responsibility for the defeat at full time, saying it was his choice to field a younger side so he didn't burn out his more experienced players. However, Manchester City forward Sterling, who was a half time substitute for his 77th cap, said the responsibility laid completely with the squad.
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Speaking to BBC 5Live, Sterling said: “No one was expecting it. I think it’s been a disappointed camp overall in a sense that there’s been games that we should have won. But football’s cruel sometimes and we’ll take this one on the chin, recover well and get ready for the campaign in September.
“Of course it’s disappointing, of course there’s going to be question marks, of course there’s going to be doubts. But I’m more than confident in the group that we have. It’s solely down to us as players.
“We put good enough sides on each and every match that we’ve played and we just haven’t got the results. We haven’t been competitive enough, we haven’t been ruthless enough – myself also. So, it’s one that we just look at ourselves as a collective and I know once we have that well-deserved break that we need and we come back, we’ll be ready again.”
Sterling then defended Southgate, saying he shouldn't be judged on four Nations League games at the end of a long season.
“I keep saying after these last couple of games, you can’t be judged on that," he continued, taking responsibility for the defeat on behalf of the squad.
“If you look at the steps that he’s [Southgate] made over the last couple of tournaments, semi-final and a final, I think a Nations League couple of bad results is not something that we can judge him on.
“He’s led us incredibly well. He’s showed us the way, he’s helped us mature from young men to senior pros, a lot of us in the dressing room. He’s doing that now with a lot of the young lads and he’s trying to make sure that everyone’s got enough experience for when we do hit the big time that we’re all ready.”
“[We need to] keep calm of course. As I keep saying, it’s going to be alarm bells ringing because of the opposition we played today. We should take the responsibility because we’re players that are playing in the biggest competition and this is a game today that we should win without a doubt.
“This is down to the players to take this one on the chin, assess ourselves and come back and make sure we do the business in September and I’ve got the utmost confidence in the boys to do that.”
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