Gareth Southgate regretted the poor level shown by his team against Malta

England national team’s manager Gareth Southgate surprised the media and the fans in the press conference after the England’s 2-0 win against Malta in Wembley on the ninth day of the Euro 2024 qualifiers, a game where the locals struggled to impose their quality over a weak rival, who barely suffered against the Three Lions despite ending being defeated.

The English team, who based their victory on two concrete favorable plays, did not show their best level on the pitch, and Gareth Southgate spoke about it in the after game press conference, revealing that the level shown by the team was not the level expected from his team, and warned his players of the need of developing a better football.

In this sense, the English manager asked his players to show a better quality with the ball to avoid negative surprises in the next few games.  "I've been in football for three years and I know if you don't start games well it's really hard to pick it up," Southgate said in a news conference. "We needed to show better quality with the ball, but we were also a bit stretched without and a little bit disjointed in our pressing at times”, he explained.

Southgate avoided slamming his squad for the bad game completed

Finally, he confessed to having an exceptional group of players, and he remembered the great quality of his players, and he avoided slamming them for the performance against Malta. "We know it's not the level we want to be at, not the level we need to be at. But equally this group of players have been exceptional and I'm not about to start getting into their ribs too much for a performance like tonight", revealed Southgate.