World Cup: Gareth Southgate says England are 'not a top-four team yet'

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We went beyond what we thought possible - Southgate

England are "not a top-four team yet" but are "proud" they reached the World Cup semi-finals, says manager Gareth Southgate.

The Three Lions finished fourth in Russia as they lost 2-0 to Belgium in St Petersburg three days after their semi-final defeat by Croatia.

Southgate believes England have not reached their peak and can improve for the 2020 European Championship.

"We don't kid ourselves and we know the areas we hope to get better," he said.

"We are very proud of what we have done. Against the best teams we have come up short, but we have had a wonderful experience. I couldn't ask for any more from the players.

"We were 20 minutes from a World Cup final three nights ago."

Southgate led England to their first World Cup semi-final since 1990, a feat he admitted was "beyond what we thought was possible".

"I felt it was important to tell them how proud I was and to recognise how far they got," said Southgate.

"We haven't hidden in terms of where we see our progress, but we also leave here having progressed a lot as a team.

"The experiences the players have had and the enjoyment is important in an England shirt. They would have learned a lot in victory and in defeat, and now we look to the future."

England had the youngest squad in Russia, and Southgate hopes the "brilliant adventure" will help build "belief and momentum".

"But we are also very realistic about the constant improvements we have to make," he added.

"It has been nice to receive a lot of praise but, balanced with that, we have had a lot of reality as well."

England's next fixtures are in September, when they face Switzerland and the USA, before meeting Spain and Croatia in the Uefa Nations League in October.

Southgate said: "We have some big fixtures in the autumn so they are great opportunities for us to develop and improve, try things, look at players and constantly try to evolve."

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86 comments

  • Comment posted by AlnMac, at 19:33 14 Jul 2018

    Great to see such honest comments from a manager instead of the usual waffle.

  • Comment posted by keefyefc, at 19:25 14 Jul 2018

    Honest words from Southgate
    "Yet" means we are making progress
    Top ten in world football maybe top 6 in Europe
    More positives than negatives from this tournament

  • Comment posted by Bob, at 20:13 14 Jul 2018

    @ 22 Alan

    Lallana and Wiltshire missed out because L was injured most of 2018, and Wiltshire looked sh*te in an average Arsenal team. Southgate picked a squad on form and fitness, and got the rewards. 4th place from this squad is admirable. L and W would not have improved this squad IMO.

  • Comment posted by FNL, at 19:49 14 Jul 2018

    Southgate has emerged from WC with great credit however he needs to evolve as well. He is still young and relatively inexperienced so needs to know when to change, not just personnel, but also tactics. He believes in a system but occasionally that system has to be tweaked, adjusted or abandoned. Also needs someone with a bit of craft in midfield.

  • Comment posted by BeardsleysBum, at 20:29 14 Jul 2018

    Southgate has got an A for getting the media on his side and being a very likeable, well spoken manager but he has not been a true manager.

    We've played 7 games at the tournament, and i didnt see one tactical change. One formation, one plan. Even worse he is too soft to drop players that need (and could benefit) from being dropped.

    Dele was anonymous bar 1 header. Needs to become ruthless.

  • Comment posted by Arsenal42, at 19:42 14 Jul 2018

    Agree with Gareth. We know our team wasn't the best and we were lucky that the draw opened out for us but we had a young squad that can hopefully improve in the coming years. Croatia have a very strong team and we pushed them close so nothing to be embarrassed by.

  • Comment posted by Terry, at 19:54 14 Jul 2018

    Manager needs to grow a pair and not be scared to leave players out. To play Kane today 'because he wanted to play' was spineless. Bloke been awful last three games and clearly should have been rested. And no one needs to say anything about Sterling as palpably obvious he lacks basic technique

  • Comment posted by Scooby, at 19:25 14 Jul 2018

    Hopefully these lads don't have their heads turned by big money offers from the so called big clubs who will offer them the world in salary only for them to be sat on the bench as unused subs.

    This will be the kiss of death to this young talented squad. Hopefully they will see past the financial inducements and progress.

  • Comment posted by Vox Populi, at 20:53 14 Jul 2018

    England rarely produce top class midfield playmakers and it needs to be addressed.

    I've only seen three genuine ones in the last 40 years- Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne and Paul Scholes.

    Even when we have them, they're not always appreciated. We love midfield goalscorers, ball-winners and those with 'terrific engines'.

    That gifted creative playmaker is what this current side really lacks.

  • Comment posted by WaddlesMane, at 20:42 14 Jul 2018

    Have watched Dortmunds games and as mad as it sounds Sancho is already a more productive player than Sterling. Lewis Cook should go straight into the midfield as well.

    Seeing Kane dropping into midfield having been starved of the football should tell you this formation does not work.

  • Comment posted by footiefan81, at 20:30 14 Jul 2018

    Never will be while the premier league remains as it is. We’ve won every under age tournament going but who genuinely believes those lads will get a chance at City, Chelsea, Utd. Until that changes, England will never be a top team and that will be the wasted generation. Southgate has been great but I’m not convinced he really has what it takes to win at the top level.

  • Comment posted by DB, at 20:17 14 Jul 2018

    I can't see how you can expect kids to learn to play football when you've got streets they can't play in, schools with no playing fields, waste ground built over and where anyone wanting to coach kids is assumed to be a pedophile.

  • Comment posted by PM-6, at 19:35 14 Jul 2018

    Scooby, I couldn’t agree more with you. The youngest team in the World Cup and coming fourth, should be really proud of what’s been achieved in such a short time. Wouldn’t it be nice if these so called big clubs embraced this achievement and gave the English youths more game time instead of signing all these overpriced and overpaid foreign players. Fat chance of that though.

  • Comment posted by Hot Dog, at 21:31 14 Jul 2018

    I’m sick of reading about how this team is young, talented, improving, blah blah blah. Can’t fault their effort, desire, teamwork, organisation, etc... but you can get all that in my kids’ little league on Sat mornings. Eng are severely lacking in technique and creativity. Rarely test the keeper against half-decent oppo. And they’re not even that young...

  • Comment posted by Bugsymalone, at 19:55 14 Jul 2018

    But, but, but if we had a winter break we would have won it! Fact!

    Just joking of course, although it is interesting that nobody in football is mentioning it when we progress further than anticipated before the tournament.

    Still plenty to do of course, but I am glad Southgate is clear that the players have to keep improving. A big season ahead for some players.

  • Comment posted by Aitch, at 19:49 14 Jul 2018

    He is right about that they are not a top 10 side either.

  • Comment posted by U16681038, at 20:32 14 Jul 2018

    No disrespect, simply a fact Southgate has not improved since his Middlesbrough days. Middlesbrough were an average team back in the day managed by an average manager. Southgate is still an average manager managing an average team. Given we had such an easy run we should have done so much better, if we had been in a tougher group it is debatable if we would have progressed to the KO stages.

  • Comment posted by U14260832, at 20:28 14 Jul 2018

    Great performance that exceeded everyones expectations. Now is the time to build on that and find 1 or 2 midfield players that can play. Foden, Winks,Maddison, Grealish, Will Hughes and I'm sure there are a few other candidates. But they need game time at a progressive club. Its the one glaring gap in our squad that every other top team has filled

  • Comment posted by Boyo, at 20:13 14 Jul 2018

    Do we really need a rolling 4-5 articles per day on England? They were knocked out several days ago. Don’t remember this being done when Wales - a far more inferior team - did something far more special in getting to semis of Euros.

  • Comment posted by Kevin Bennett, at 20:09 14 Jul 2018

    How does a donkey like Phil Jones get in the England team, he wouldn't have got in our school team. Rashford is not improving and Sterling is lightweight and we are being told they are the future - we won't win anything until we develop world class players.

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