Gareth Southgate has warned his England players they need to cut out the individual mistakes following their”eccentric” experience with Kosovo.
A catastrophic first-half showing from Southgate’s men was sufficient to repel a Kosovo 5-3 in St Mary’s at a pulsating European Qualifier.
After dropping behind after just 35 minutes England responded scoring five goals in the opening 45 minutes, but two defensive lapses allowed their plucky opponents a way back in the match.
The England manager praised his team’s capacity but conceded they must eliminate the mistakes in the back.
“It was bizarre,” he said.
“The exceptional features and the poor features are evident to everybody. We made a poor start and bad mistakes to the match but showed good composure to recover from these mistakes. Our use of the ball in the first half has been superb.”
He added on Sky Sports News:”The game should really be finished at half-time, of course, but if teams start to lose leads then there is a different feel about the scene as well as the opposition have nothing to lose so could opt for this, and we only have ourselves to blame because of that. They have been errors, bad errors and decisions although not structural issues for us.
“It set Kosovo back in the match and then at 5-3 we had some elongated ownership and really calmed down the game. A long passing move was that resulted in the punishment, which was our chance. Regrettably, we didn’t take that this moment, but we managed to observe the game out reasonably well from there.”
It was a performance from the men of Southgate who had been sometimes scintillating going forward in the period before the break when havoc was induced by Jadon and Sterling Sancho as England.
Kosovo coach Bernard Challandes hailed Sterling because”one of the best in the world” after his performance while Sancho took his chance with open arms, netting his first foreign objectives.
Southgate had high praise for those both.
He said:”The forward play was exceptional at times…Sterling’s performances have been of the maximum level. He was unstoppable. His comprehension of his ability to ride his vision, struggles and desire to get in on target and where defenders are. I could not talk highly enough of him.
Southgate additional on Sancho:”We all know we’ve got such great attacking gift. We were really pleased with Marcus [Rashford] at the weekend. Jadon is a different sort of player. His balance was shown by him and he showed his ability to beat on folks from a standing start. He works really tough for the group without the ballwhich is important to the way we perform with, and he was rewarded with his first goals for England which is a special moment for him”
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