A handful of England fans let manager Gareth Southgate know how they felt after an underwhelming 0-0 draw with Slovenia at Euro 2024 on Tuesday, hurling empty cups in his direction.
Southgate, whose team finished top of Group C with five points but scored two goals in three games, said he will bear the brunt of the criticism but made a plea for the fans to support his players.
“I understand it. I’m not going to back away from it. The most important thing is the supporters stay with the team,” Southgate told reporters.
“I understand the narrative towards me and that’s better for the team than it being towards them. But it is creating an unusual environment to operate in. I’ve not seen any other team qualify and receive similar.”
While England arrived as favourites, they have left fans frustrated with three tepid performances, falling short on their aim to make a statement with a decisive win on Tuesday that would have set them up for the knockout rounds with momentum.
“They (England’s players) kept composure in a game where they’ve come into a really challenging environment,” Southgate said. “Of course, we’d love a couple of goals that sends everybody home happy. But we were definitely an improvement on what we did in the last game.”
England, who were poor in their 1-1 draw with Denmark on Thursday, enjoyed 72% possession and completed 694 passes compared to 208 from Slovenia but very few of them caused their opponents any real concern.
There were some positive glimpses in what Southgate and captain Harry Kane called the best of their three matches, with substitutes Kobbie Mainoo, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon injecting some much-needed energy.
“I think the changes we made had a positive effect on the game tonight,” Southgate said. “We weren’t able to find the right pass, the final finish. But we are improving.
“I don’t think we were suddenly going to be free and liberated and stick four or five goals in. Football doesn’t work that way. I saw progress. The goals will come.”
Southgate’s men can perhaps take some measure of comfort from recent history. They were terrible in a 0-0 draw with Scotland in the group stage three years ago before going on to finish runners-up to Italy at Euro 2020.
“You never want to look back having not topped the group and spiral into tough matches where people can then accuse you that, because you didn’t win the group then you’ve ended up with a tougher draw,” Southgate said.
On the plus side for England, who are unbeaten in their last 14 European Championship group stage matches going back to a 2-1 loss to France in 2004, they have wound up on the opposite side of the knockout draw to France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
A key factor, Southgate said, will be to keep a positive mood in the camp amid the criticism ahead of Sunday’s last-16 game.
“We have made England over the last three or four years fun again,” he said. “I think it has been enjoyable for the players and we have got to be very, very careful that it stays that way.”