Gareth Southgate has suggested that England’s upcoming Nations League games are a “great opportunity” for his team ahead of this winter’s World Cup.
It is now just three months until The Three Lions face Iran in their opening game of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
September’s Nations League games against Italy and Germany are Southgate’s only opportunity to work with his squad before they meet a week before the World Cup in November.
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That fact has heightened the importance of the upcoming matches, so too has the need to respond to the 4-0 home humbling by Hungary as June’s challenging four-game schedule came to an embarrassing end.
“We’re not going to get the players together again before the World Cup,” Southgate told Sky Sports.
“You’d normally have perhaps a 28-day training camp and a couple of friendlies leading into a tournament to work with the team. This is the last realistic opportunity to do that.
“When we get together in the winter, we’ll be flying to Qatar and it’ll be a normal one-week prep for a game.
“So, these are a great opportunity to test ourselves against really top teams. We want to respond to the performances that we gave in the summer and it’s really important preparation ahead of the World Cup.”
Southgate will name his squad for the San Siro and Wembley matches in three weeks – a period he will surely be hoping offers greater clarity on players’ form and fitness.
Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw dropped to the bench for Manchester United’s win against Liverpool, while the game-time of Jack Grealish, Kalvin Phillips and John Stones at Manchester City will be monitored.
“There’s a lot going on, isn’t there?” Southgate said of the start to the Premier League season.
“I mean, I think this time of the year, the league table doesn’t always represent or settle down for a few weeks and you’ve still got the transfer window open, which creates such chaos within every club, really.
“Things have to settle and we’re probably fortunate – normally our international fixtures would be next week and we’d be naming a squad. It’s nice that there are a few weeks to see things map out a bit and to see how players are physically, fitness-wise.
“There have been some unexpected results but I think this time of the year that can happen and we’re going to go into a period now where there’ll be two games a…
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