Gareth Southgate has said England have to convince themselves as much as any outside party that their rousing run to the World Cup semi-finals was not an extraordinary event by impressing in their homecoming fixture against Spain.
The England manager admitted that beating a leading nation was another box his young team have to tick off. Since Southgate’s appointment in 2016, England have played top-20 nations on 10 occasions but are yet to win in normal time.
Their opening Nations League match at Wembley presents an opportunity to redress that record by beating Spain, a team ranked ninth in the world, despite a shambolic World Cup.
“Although we haven’t beaten those top teams, we’ve also been trying to blood young players at the same time and develop as a team,” Southgate said. “I have to get the balance right between driving the performance and improving. Results are a consequence of doing things well and having high standards, improving the detail of how we play.
“We’ve got to convince ourselves Russia wasn’t a one-off. That’s the most important thing. That was a moment in time; that will always be there. But, moving forward, expectations are good. More expectation is a healthy thing and something we have to embrace.”
Harry Kane, sitting beside his manager, agreed that beating Spain would be another step taken after a World Cup that saw many familiar England failings turned on their head. Against Colombia there was a historic penalty shootout victory and England reached the last four. But the captain concurred that defeating a top team was another hurdle.
“It would give us huge confidence,” he said. “That’s the one thing from the summer we didn’t do – that’s got to be the aim. To be up there, consistently, in these tournaments you’re going to have to beat these nations. It’ll be a big test, Spain are very good but if we do win it’ll give us huge belief.”
Kane joined the ranks of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gary Lineker and Eusébio by winning the Golden Boot in Russia. The striker scored six goals, five in the group stages and one in the first knockout round against Colombia. He will be presented with the trophy by Southgate before the match, England’s first fixture since they played Belgium in the World Cup third-place play-off.
Southgate was effusive in his praise of the 25-year-old, whom he called the world’s best player in his position. “If you look at the Golden Boot down the years, we wouldn’t know who people scored their goals against so it’s a brilliant achievement however you reach it,” he said.
“Look at No 9s around the world and I can’t see a better one – Messi and Ronaldo are different players. Always as a player you are questioned and challenged about the next step. That’s what drives the very best: they want to continually win. That’s what I’ve seen in the last five years working with Harry.”
After 14 games without a goal in August for Tottenham, Kane finally rid himself of that hoodoo and has scored twice this season. He has had a quiet start to the season in some minds, with 10 shots on target in the opening four games. But Kane, whose fiancee Kate gave birth to the couple’s second child last month, insisted he was not experiencing post-World Cup fatigue.
“I feel fine,” he said. “The manager, Mauricio [Pochettino], is very good at managing that throughout the season. There might be stages in the season where you have a dip. But that’s where the manager comes in and you might get a few days’ break.
“I’ve had 10 shots in the first four games. I’ve scored the same number as after four games last season. Maybe I’ve become a better finisher. There are always little things that people pick out of your game, but I feel sharp.”
