Raheem Sterling leapt to the defence of under-fire Gareth Southgate following England’s Hungary humbling at Molineux on Tuesday evening.
Sterling has become a firm favourite of Southgate’s and feels it is unfair to judge the 51-year-old on a Nations League run that has seen England lose home and away to Hungary, given what Southgate has done for the team and nation during his time in charge.
To Sterling, Southgate has been a very good England manager to him and many of the players, the forward interjected: ‘And the country. I keep saying after these last couple of games, you can’t be judged on that.
‘If you look at the steps that he’s made over the last couple of tournaments, semi-final and a final, I think a Nations League couple of bad results is not something that we can judge him on.
‘He’s led us incredibly well. He’s showed us the way, he’s helped us mature from young men to senior pros, a lot of us in the dressing room.
‘He’s doing that now with a lot of the young lads and he’s trying to make sure that everyone’s got enough experience for when we do hit the big time that we’re all ready.’
Sterling believes shutting off for a week after the club season before returning to England matters was challenging but did not want to use that as an excuse, saying June simply ‘hasn’t gone to plan’.
The defeat leaves England in the eye of a storm and bottom of Group A3 ahead of September’s trip to Italy and home match with Germany – the final fixtures before the World Cup gets under way in five months.
Credit: dailymail.co.uk
