The pressure appears to be mounting on England boss Gareth Southgate who didn’t want to be “too critical of the performance” after his side lost 1-0 to Italy in the UEFA Nations League in Milan on Friday.
The result means England are relegated from the top Nations League A Group, having finished last in Group 3, with Hungary set to win the pool after beating Germany 1-0 in Leipzig.
But England’s situation is curious, having scored only once in five group games, going winless and producing dour football which has left fans frustrated.
It comes ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar where expectations had been high following England’s run to the Euro 2020 final, along with their semi-final finish at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“It’s a spell where ultimately results are going to be the thing that everyone reacts to but I thought there were a lot of positives for us as a team tonight,” Southgate said.
“Lots of good individual performances. I personally thought the performance is a step in the right direction. I completely understand because of the result that is not going to be the reaction.”
He added: “It’s difficult for me to be too critical of the performance. We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target. For large parts of the game we played very well.”
England’s lack of goals is most alarming, with their only strike coming from a Harry Kane penalty against Germany.
The Three Lions netted only two times in the Euro 2020 group stage, before 2-0, 4-0 and 2-1 knockout wins over Germany, Ukraine and Denmark respectively.
England also piled on 39 goals in 10 games in 2022 World Cup qualifying, albeit largely against weaker opposition.
“It’s really difficult to pinpoint why we are not scoring,” he said. “I think we are getting into the right areas.
“We had the moments where we would have the pass but we just didn’t deliver that final piece of quality tonight.”
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