Gareth Southgate speaks after England World Cup squad announcement – watch live
England manager Gareth Southgate speaks after the announcement of the England squad for the World Cup.
Transcript
Gareth nice to see you on a big day um a day when you've broken some hearts and and you've made a number of players dreams come true I suspect um but crucially before we get into the individuals and the decisions that you've made when you look at that Squad of 26 do you believe it has everything in there needed to win a World Cup yeah that we we've wanted to make sure we've got the balance of the squad right um I think in this day and age Squad is more important than ever we're now five substitutes you can have almost half the team changed during your game so you want different options for different moments of matches um and for different stages of the tournament as well um we've obviously had to cover a couple of players that aren't yet fully fit fully match fit as well so having 26 available meant that we were probably able to take a couple of risks that you might not have been able to with 23. but we think the balance is there and we've got covering the positions we need we're we're lighter on depth in some positions than other in in our country but we think we've got everything covered we said widely across every bit of the media I think before you pick your squad that James Madison would be the headline story whether he was in or whether he was out he's in why is he in he's playing really well um look he's a good player we've always said he's a good player he's earned the right um he we think he can give us something slightly different to the other attacking players that we've got so I think at various stages there have been conversations debates about James there's been moments where you know ahead of the Euros he I don't think he was in contention he had a bit of a problem with his hip and then I think September was probably a fair debate um but I think he's playing as well as any of the attacking players in this country and um yeah he is a little bit different to the others we've got different types of threat and I think we could need that did you speak personally to Callum Wilson was he absolutely delighted I haven't had a chance with Callum I did speak to James because I think this morning there was a lot of speculation that James wouldn't be with us and we'd decided a couple of weeks ago that we would but we weren't obviously going to go and tell him then um I didn't get a chance to speak with Callum my priority always on these days is the difficult conversations and the sad news and that is really tough you know there's um not many situations in football harder than that maybe releasing a young player um at the early stages of their career but the the nature of those conversations good and bad reminds you of how much it means to a player to go to a World Cup and um yeah I'm very conscious of that so it is a great day but also for some I've had to disappoint them one of those is Tammy Abraham I suspect and you've gone for Wilson ahead of Tammy Abraham what was that discussion and debate like in your mind yeah look um Tommy's had a poor run of scoring form at the wrong time really and it's not a case where we're three four weeks away from the finals and and the start of the first match we're now 10 days and so form could be more important I think we don't really know any of the players we're watching um their Club form but we don't really know where they are until we see them face to face until we see them on the training pitch we get regular medical updates from all their clubs but there'll be medical issues that we're not completely aware of yet um we know the form we're seeing in the matches but even so you you still don't get the full picture from the players until you're able to speak with them work with them um and see how they train with each other you hinted that you wanted extra cover for players that might be struggling with injury and obviously Calvin Phillips and Carl Walker are the two obvious ones there how are they how big a gamble is it to include them in this Squadron and can we assume that neither can really play a part in the opening game uh no that's not the case I mean Calvin played last night um so I think with him he's free of injury the um we are aware that um he's not going to be able to play seven ninety minutes that that won't be possible um we're gonna have to build his Fitness level but he's available he's free of injury and we don't really have you know we have Declan rice as a defensive midfielder pendo can play there but it's not his number one position um so we don't have a lot of cover for that role in the country and Calvin is a super player and we feel that um you know that's a risk worth taking because he's also generally his Fitness is good um and yeah we think he can add to the group and Kyle similarly Kyle a little bit different in that he's not back in full training yet but he he's going to be available before the end of the group stage and of course we had to make a very difficult call with Rhys who we think is a fantastic player but he wasn't going to be available until if everything went perfectly until the latter stages of the tournament and there were too many unknowns for us on that road to recovery and also I don't think we can take a player who's not available for the group that would be deemed arrogant in some circles but also would it then be dropping If he if everything went well and he was available and he was ready and we were picking him then he'd be dropping him into a quarter final after eight weeks out and that's that would be really demanding so yeah tough call Kyle is a long way ahead of that and he's progressing really well thank you card hello um can we look at Harry MaGuire a player that's struggling to get minutes but has been a stall walk for you what was your decision-making process and how much have you been in touch with Manchester United about what he's doing when he's not getting those playing minutes and uh will you be considering it bringing him as an out and out attacker after he's uh playing time alongside Ronaldo against browser well physically we've had really good communication with all of the clubs in this period on the training loads of all of the players because we've got to pick that up immediately on uh well it'll be Wednesday before we see them on the training pitch so we needed to know those who are playing what's their load those who are playing less regularly some have had a unbelievably intense schedule some have had less so so we're picking up various Fitness levels and we've got to get that right on the training pitch um yeah I mean we've picked um our more experienced Defenders and we think that at this moment in time the younger ones have got some really good qualities but um we don't think they've quite done enough to push the more experienced ones out and we think the tournament we're going into and the level of the matches that that needed to be the pecking order you've always said that Trent Alexander Arnold is an outstanding player always in consideration but he didn't start in the games building up for this announcement what conversations did you have with him and what's been his reaction that he is now in the squad no as I said really the only phone calls I've made have been to um the two Lads that are coming back from injury the boys I left out of the squad and then to James because um you know I felt that was a an important call to make this morning the rest of the guys you know there's only so many hours in the day and we've been monitoring Fitness monitoring matches um dealing with so much so I think they'll be delighted they'll get the news and um yeah we've got plenty of time to chat over the next few weeks and for you now going forward when you've got a real balance between the experience of the players the 12 that have been to a World Cup before and and the rest of this squad and this this quick turnaround is that exactly why you've brought the likes of Harry MaGuire back in when they haven't had those match months yeah he's one of our best center-backs so um I think we we know um within the squad we've got a lot of players that we know have been to tournaments have performed at the level know what's required um we've got other players who are playing well who are in um form right at this moment and we've got to balance all of that when we're picking our team you didn't call up James Madison in the last Camp hasn't played a few years now for England a lot of people would have assumed that's because one of the camps he missed because he was ill and then was seen in a casino watching the match he said at the time well that would just remind him of the scrutiny of being an England player have you did you have a conversation about that again or on his form is it just unnecessary no I I didn't have that was unfortunate from his perspective in that um it became a bigger issue than it was for me because of uh you know you end up in the papers nobody likes that I live with it every day so I don't I don't take any notice of it but um for me that wasn't the drama that it seemed to be for everybody else um he's always been up against some really good players in that area of the pitch and there's been moments where we were playing four three three no number 10 type profile and that didn't necessarily fit um but he's he's as I said earlier he's playing exceptionally well um we like the fact that he finds those pockets of space he gets turned he Place forward not enough players play forward in this day and age um and of course his set play delivery is outstanding and he can score goals from distance which against low block defenses is a is another attribute that is a little bit different to some of our other players Kerry we go to John Murray from the BBC hey Gareth you got me yeah can you give this a flavor of what James Madison's reaction was when he answered and you told him the news yeah he was he was delighted and um as I said I had some very difficult calls that were emotionally at the other end of the spectrum so yeah it was nice to give myself a little bit of a uh an enjoyable end to that because you know I'm excited about going to a World Cup it's my fourth and um you know that's a that's a privilege and an honor and um all of those calls the the difficult ones and the really enjoyable ones were a reminder of what it means to the players and what would you say this 26 that you've chosen this time has got that makes it stand out from the other two big squads you've picked for for the World Cup and the Euros I think I think they've all been good squads I mean in 2018 we were at the start of something where we hadn't won a knockout game for 10 years and um there was a little bit less experience perhaps within the group of big matches um I think this is similar in terms of its standing to the to the group that went to the euros and um yeah of course within that period of time from the start to the end of that some players have moved on age-wise some players haven't progressed in the way they might have done new players young players have emerged that have uh that have given us great competition for places in most areas of the pitch so um we're excited by the group we think there's a lot of um exciting Talent within it um but the whole group have got to come together you know there's a lot of challenges it's a unique situation for everybody this tournament the timing of it um and the obstacles just to get to this point medically as much as anything so um we've got to adapt better than everybody else in this in this coming period from hi Gareth um I have the fa and the players come to eclectic decision about what you will do or say if members from the lgbtq plus Community are victimized in any way during this particular World Cup and as a follow-up question Iran is your first match at this competition they have been supplying the likes of Russia with Weaponry should they be at this world cup so regarding the LGBT community we stand for inclusivity and we're very very strong on that we think that's important in terms of all our supporters and we understand the challenges that that this tournament brings within that if it wasn't for the strength of that Community we wouldn't be women's European Champions so it's very very important to us with Iran um that's a political situation that I don't know enough about to be able to comment so those decisions have to be taken by governing bodies and um yeah I can't comment with enough authority to give you a really considered View FIFA fast that Nations don't talk about anything other than football when the football starts will you be going along with that I think that's highly unlikely um you know I think we have always spoken um about issues that we think should be talked about particularly the ones we feel we can affect um I think contrary to one or two observations in the last few weeks we have spoken in the same way that other nations have spoken about this tournament and the human rights challenges we've been very clear on our standpoint on that um so yeah look I think we would also like to focus primarily on the football this is for every player and every coach and everybody traveling to a World Cup this is a carnival of football it's the thing you work for your whole life so you don't want that to be diminished by everything else that's going on around it currently um but we recognize that that we are going to be in that situation we've got to accept and deal with it thank you thank you that in some positions than in others in fact to say that Midfield is one of those and and is it a disappointment that you're that you haven't had a lot of young midfielders or midfielders of any type emerging as real strong candidates for this squad well to be fair Jude has obviously emerged more in the last two years or 18 months since the Euros I mean we we put him in at 1718 so um but look everybody says we've got enormous depth but we're 31 of The League last year so I know I talked about that periodically three four years ago I think because the team have done well that has masked that we've only got four English goalkeepers playing in the Premier League currently um left backs there aren't many playing um we've got an unbelievable uh injury list of fallbacks at the moment left and right um quite incredible and yeah sort of number six if you like the defensive pivot Midfield player um is is also light in terms of actually developing that position in our country so you know Declan is really a converted Defender um and Calvin is sort of slightly converted as well so um yeah we we haven't uh produced that type of player for a long time and it's something that you know our academies uh you know I think could focus on but that's you know that's for the longer term that's we've got the players we've got we're happy with the squad we've got we always have to find a way of playing to the best attributes of the players we've got and we we can be exciting and dangerous um even though we don't have those types of profiler players Antonio Conte was saying last night Harry Kane is tired exhausted I'm sure he is yeah is that is that a concern for you not well particularly with Harry but with with all of those that a lot of them do look tired or are carrying injuries yeah look uh again I think I've stood here several times in the last year and said this this world cup everybody said This World Cup being in the middle of the Season would be better for us and I said we would lose players sadly that has been the case the schedule is what it is um but we've got to refresh the players we've got to excite them when they get through the door we've got a period of time where we won't set foot on the training pitch when they arrive because we'll travel on Tuesday so we have got some that need to train um and we've got some that will benefit from a few days of of doing nothing but get excited about playing for England frankly so we we can only manage that when the players are with us um we understand the challenges for the clubs now and after the tournament and um we've just got to make sure we focus on the bits we can control um what have you learned from the Euros that you can take into the World Cup and why do you decide not to select uh James Ward press yeah with um with James um he's really competing profile wise with Bellingham and Henderson maybe to a lesser degree Gallagher um I don't see him in the same profile as rice or Phillips they're different types of players um it he he's just behind those guys frankly and it's as simple as that now we've still got another round of games to get through so I've spoken with a few of the players to say that things can still change over the weekend from the Euros there's loads of things we've learned loads of things we did right loads of things that um actually won't apply in this tournament because it's a different time of the year it's more condensed we don't have warm-up games we're going to be playing in different conditions heat wise so you're always learning from every tournament but also there are unique things around every tournament as well and we've got to make sure that we weave all of that together and have you spoken to Ben White no the only people I've spoken to are the ones I've already uh uh mentioned but I would imagine I hope he's very excited about being involved thank you James Ollie from ESPN hi Gareth I'm just following on from what you just said there um can you give us a bit more detail about the standby is there a sort of a formal standby list no we we had to name basically every English player that was available on a long list um and um there are some conversations I've had with players in the last couple of days where clearly they're going to be the next ones in in their positions um but then we just don't know what might happen in in the next few days um you know I I think there are two left-backs that got injured last night for example so um we've got to be fluid adaptable and and ready for anything really just on that how stressful is this weekend going to be for you with these games not for me and there's nothing I can do about it so you know the watching the the matches unfold you're always intrigued to see how the tactical games are going the performances the results the form of the players of course um but we can do nothing about the injuries that's out of our hands we've already been hit in that way it could happen again but we've got to adapt we've got good players to come in and it'll be opportunities for others if if we lost people Thanks James we'll take one here hi Gareth um considering where the World Cup is this year and some of the issues that have been documented in Qatar will England be taking the knee on a worldwide stage um United support and get behind some of the black and mixed race players yeah that would be a discussion we have with the players when we get into Camp um and I'm always um supportive of what they want to do I have a view but I don't want to influence them too much because I think it's important that they have a voice and they have a say in that can't see any more hands so oh sorry we've got a different from hi Gareth um you you've talked in the past about seeing Madison as a number 10 and the implications that had for the formation that you might play can we read anything into his selection into the formations you might use in Qatar well he he um is obviously playing from the right for Leicester uh his best work is in that 10 slot that's where he ends up so how how he ends up there is is different I think um I think we've got to be flexible on our systems because um everybody's always pushing do you know your your best team sort of eight months from a tournament and I've always said we've got to be fluid because you just don't know who you'll have um we can't recruit like you would at a club to a set system um and even you know there are only a probably a couple of teams in the league that