Gareth Southgate offers salvation of a starting role with Under-21s

Gareth Southgate believes his England Under-21 team can offer a form of salvation for many of his players.

The Three Lions head coach named his latest squad for the Euro Qualifiers with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Switzerland on Thursday, knowing that the majority of the group had not started games with their clubs the previous weekend.

And while Southgate is keen for his charges to be making more of an inroad into their club teams, he is also aware that the U21s can take on an important role in their development. 

"We’ve almost become a vehicle for some of these lads to play football," admitted Southgate.

"If I look at people like Jesse Lingard, who has now gone into the team at Manchester United, for long periods he was struggling to break in, but the U21s was a constant for him over the last couple of years, as it was for Jack Butland.

"It gave them a focus and something to hang their hat on when they weren’t necessarily getting games with their clubs.

"So it’s a different dynamic to the past, but it’s important that the players show what they’re capable of and it sends a message back to their club managers – you can trust me, I can go and play in front of crowds and perform well."

There are no complaints from the former Middlesbrough boss about the situation, though, as he urges young English players to prove their worth against the Premier League’s top crop.

"That’s the nature of the Premier League at the moment," he added. 

"We can’t complain at that, it’s the landscape and it just means that you’ve got to be the best you possibly can and you’ve got to be better than some top, top players. 

"You’ve got to make sure you keep striving to improve and when you get an opportunity, you grab it. Your professionalism, your level of training and desire to compete and improve has to be a constant.

"These boys will play Premier League football, I’m certain of that, but it’s a tougher challenge for them now than it was ten or 15 years ago.

Southgate's Under-21s beat Kazakhstan by 3-0 in Coventry last month

"But the mentality that they have and the quality that they have, and as we’ve seen with some of the boys at Spurs and Southampton, they just need an opportunity.

"When those opportunities come, a lot of them have shown that they’re able to take it."

Those opportunities are what Southgate sees as the key, too, with the comparison of senior games for English homegrown players to their European counterparts proving to be the difference.

"For a lot of the young players, up until about 18, the progression is similar across Europe," explains Southgate.

"For instance, our U17s have won two European Championships and our clubs are doing well in the UEFA Champions League at U19 level, but it’s the 19, 20 and 21 period where they need to play first team football.

"Players in other countries in Europe are getting it, but ours aren’t and that’s a concern for Roy [Hodgson] more than it is for me because the pool of players seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

"That’s why more younger players are going up [from the U21s to seniors], because they’re playing games."

Southgate’s squad play Bosnia & Herzegovina in Sarajevo on Thursday 12 November, before they entertain Switzerland at the Amex Stadium in Brighton on Monday 16 November.

Tickets for that match cost just £10 and £5, so click here for more details or call 0844 327 1901.