Gareth Southgate says subdued England needed more "energy" and discusses decision to sub Harry Kane for Marcus Rashford
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Updated 18/06/2021 at 22:16 GMT
Gareth Southgate says subdued England needed more "energy" and made controversial substitutions with 15 minutes to go, replacing captain Harry Kane for Marcus Rashford. Southgate said the team are young and would not have experienced the level of pressure of playing at Wembley.
England manager Gareth Southgate
Image credit: Eurosport
England manager Gareth Southgate has said his side needed more "energy" in their "frustrating" 0-0 Euro 2020 draw against Scotland at Wembley on Friday.
Southgate took off Phil Foden in the second half and then substituted captain Harry Kane for Marcus Rashford with 15 minutes remaining as England chased a winner.
The draw leaves England second in the group, behind Czech Republic on goal difference, and Southgate it was a frustrating night for a team who know they can play better.
"In the end we didn't do enough to win the game. If you're not going to win the game in a tournament, you've got to make sure you don't lose it. We understand it's a disappointment for our supporters especially, but we've got to dust ourselves down and move onto the next game," he told ITV.
"I just felt we needed a few more runs in behind, we felt Marcus [Rashford] would give us that energy and we have got to try get the win at that point, but we have to make the decisions based on what we see," he added.
"I think the whole team... we can look at ourselves, it starts with me, we've got to be better. We know we didn't do enough to win the game tonight -- not enough attempts on goal, so that's something we've got to go away and look at over the next couple of days.
"We are still working those patterns, still playing a very high level of games under huge intensity and to find space tonight was really difficult, Scotland got their men back into the box really well and defended really well and we weren't able to open them up."
Southgate said that since many of the players in the squad have not played in a major tournament before, they would not have experienced the level of pressure that was laid upon them.
"It's a very young team that played tonight and some of them won't have experienced what it's like to play under that sort of intensity and pressure so that's a huge learning for them. What we've got to do is make sure we improve for our next game.
England can still top Group D as they finish against Czech Republic on June 22 at Wembley. When asked on whether Friday's disappointing performance would affect his squad choice, Southgate said: "We've got to see how everyone is in the dressing room after the game, and prepare for a different type of opponent and make the right decisions."
Scotland's final Group D game is against Croatia at Hampden Park in Glasgow on the same day.
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