England vs Scotland - Southgate tells England to be more streetwise

Posted Friday, November 11, 2016 by PA

Interim manager Gareth Southgate wants England to be confident, expressive and streetwise against Scotland and beyond.

The 113th clash of the Auld Enemies comes at a time of transition for both countries, with Gordon Strachan's side needing to kick-start their World Cup qualifying campaign as the Three Lions' temporary boss looks to end a turbulent year on a high.

Victory would boost Southgate's chances of getting the job permanently but the former defender steadfastly refused to talk about the long-term future, albeit being more forthcoming about the mindset he is looking to cultivate.

The England Under-21s boss believes players will better understand what is required on the pitch if they speak more freely off it, leading to a debate in the build-up to Friday's match about the difference between confidence and arrogance.

"It was just a comment that came up in a discussion last night," the interim boss said. "We are trying to get the guys talking more, expressing themselves more in front of each other.

"To be a team you need to have that level of communication a bit deeper. It's easy to have those sessions where people say 'we've got to be professional' or 'we've got to be leaders'.

"Well, what does that mean? Let's go further. I think we are at the early stages of that, really.

"It's something that we've tried to start doing with the Under-21s and the younger age groups in terms of: 'let's make our level of analysis of our game deeper'.

"Let's make our analysis of emotional things and discussions around things like leadership and game management more detailed, because it's easy to be fluffy."

Fluffy would be an apt description of the way England sometimes appear against calculated opponents.

The accusation of being too nice has also dogged Southgate, but the interim manager wants to help make the players more wily.

"The classic of that would be the game last year where Harry (Kane) nearly got decapitated against Portugal and tried to keep going," he said, referring to the summer friendly at Wembley.

"A lot of feedback to me would be 'It's a joke you're telling him to go down and get the other player sent off, it's not British'.

"I'd be one of the first to, at the right moment, do the right thing. But we are on the pitch. We want to win.

"So, there is obviously an edge and I don't encourage players to cheat.

"But if somebody fouls us and it is a foul and it should be a yellow card, sometimes you have to make sure that decision is taken."

Gordon Strachan is looking for the emotion of playing England to make his Scotland players reach new heights.

The Scots have four points from three 2018 World Cup qualifying matches ahead of the game at Wembley and are desperate for a win to get their campaign back on track.

Much has been made of the passion surrounding a game against the Auld Enemy, who top the Group F with seven points, with Three Lions stand-in boss Southgate discussing the history of the fixture with his players.

Strachan, speaking at Wembley before Scotland trained, said: "Our players are intelligent enough to understand the fixture.

"I don't have to show them anything. They know the fixture, it's known throughout the world.

"The importance of the game is to not be caught up in the emotion of the game, but use the emotion and passion to run further than you've ever run before, to jump higher than you've jumped before, to concentrate more.

"If you get too emotional, you can lose focus. We're looking for that emotion and passion to play better than we've ever played before."