Gareth Southgate hits back: It’s not normal to have beer thrown at you

Gareth Southgate has hit back at personal attacks and ridicule aimed at him, insisting it is “fuel” for European Championship glory this week.

The England manager has been hurt by open criticism that has included supporters throwing plastic beer cups at him after the goalless draw against Slovenia in the group stage of the competition.

And the 53-year-old is drawing on his experience as a player, when he was a target after his penalty-miss at Euro 96, while facing a backlash over England failing to find their peak form while looking for a first major tournament win since 1966.

“This is a job where you get ridiculed, and your professional capability is questioned beyond belief, and I don’t think it’s normal to have beer thrown at you either,” said Southgate. “But I’m fortunate that my life’s taken me through a lot of resilience-building and it’s made me more determined and I’m just using it as fuel.

“I know where I want to take the team to and the team need to see me strong in those moments as well, otherwise that messaging that you’re giving them on what they need to be, it doesn’t ring true.”

Southgate’s team have only defeated Serbia in 90 minutes during the tournament and needed a last-gasp equaliser and extra-time against Slovakia before defeating Switzerland on penalties on Saturday evening in Dusseldorf.

While England have yet to look convincing, they are still through to their third semi-final in four major tournaments under Southgate, having gone 28 years without reaching the last-four stage before his time as manager.

Southgate expects the past four tournaments to lay a foundation for future England teams, although part of the change in mindset among players is not just settling for reaching the Dortmund semi-final on Wednesday.

“This isn’t where we want it to end. You don’t necessarily want to speak about that too much, it is an unusual achievement for even the most successful nations but these guys, they’ve shown more than being able to just play, and navigating tournaments, you need lots of other qualities.

“It is that resilience, it is that ability to stay composed when you go behind in games, or when momentum’s against you, winning three penalty shoot-outs out of four, all those little bits build character, build belief.

“There’s this tournament, but given the age of the squad and their experiences now, they’ll have that belief for a long time, it should put England in a good place, but that’s the future – we’ve got a good week ahead of us.”

Southgate has spent eight years as manager and 11 years in total including his work with the Under-21s. He says that reaching the latter stages of tournaments is part of the “DNA” of the England set-up.

“The difference is, you know, we arrive in a quarter-final, we’re not satisfied with that, so there is definitely a mindset shift in what we feel is acceptable as a team, where we want to end up,” he said.

“Now within that it’s knock-out football, the margins are so fine as we’ve seen again, that can easily tip the other way and it’s a different story but those teams that have won consistently, they have that mindset, they’re not just satisfied with being in quarter-finals, they’re pushing in and that’s what we have to continue.”

Southgate hails Kane’s ‘immense’ contribution

Harry Kane has been given unequivocal backing from Gareth Southgate, who says the striker has played an “immense” part in England reaching the semi-finals at Euro 2024.

Kane, 30, struggled for clear opportunities in the penalty shoot-out victory over Switzerland before coming off with cramp in both calves.

The England captain touched the ball nine times in the first half and had two shots at goal before being forced off in extra-time, having tumbled into the technical area.

But Southgate has saluted defensive work that saw Kane step in at left-back against the Swiss in Dusseldorf. He has played an important role in his own penalty area, defending set-pieces.

“All of the games have been slightly different, I thought he did a super job for the team in terms of defensively, his positioning, his understanding of where he needed to be,” said Southgate.

“He’s perhaps not flowing as he’s arriving in those deeper areas as sometimes he looks with his passing, but he’s still playing an immense part for the group.”

Kane: our system caused Switzerland problems

Kane and England face Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday for a place in the final and he will be taking on his Bayern Munich team-mate Matthijs de Ligt. The Three Lions captain says his team-mates have belief after getting through their two knockout games with narrow victories.

“It was definitely our best performance against Switzerland,” Kane said. “The system caused them problems and we got on the ball more, played in their final-third more.

“We still just lacked a little bit of end product but tournaments are tough, these games are tough and you have to find a way to get through them.

“The longer we go in the competition in the manner we’re doing it, it just gives us more and more belief that we’re finding ways to win. That’s an important factor in big competitions.

“We’re enjoying it, we’re enjoying the ride. We’re proud to be in another semi-final because we know how much it means to everyone back home watching. We want to do everyone proud and that’ll be no different on Wednesday.”