England boss Gareth Southgate takes us through his thoughts ahead of World Cup draw

Thursday 30 Nov 2017

The Journey

I hadn’t thought of it until now, but it’s one year on from when I was appointed full-time and here we are going to the World Cup draw. The first plan we had last November was to qualify for the World Cup. We managed to execute that in October and we were pleased with the way the games went this November. That’s certainly taken us to the next stage, so now we’re looking forward to getting our next meet-up in March right to then lead us into the Finals. This is going to be a really exciting period.

The Draw

It’s one of those exciting moments for the fans and for me too, when we find out who we’re going to get and where we’ll be playing them. With the draw being hosted within the Kremlin in Moscow, it’s a really iconic venue and it will be fascinating to go in there and experience it. When we were in Russia last summer for the Confederations Cup, I managed to pop to Red Square and had a look around with Steve Holland, so to go inside the Kremlin will be a unique experience for me.

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The Opposition

What you notice, is that when you look at Pot 4, there’s some really strong teams in there and that shows how high the quality of opposition in the World Cup is. People have been saying to me in the last few days, ‘hope you get a good draw’. But I’m not quite sure what that is really. It’s as much about being able to get a good look at the opposition from Friday onwards and also the dates of when we will be playing as that could change your arrival in Russia by up to four or five days depending on which group you’re in and in turn, that has a bearing on when you have your training camps before that, so it’s important to know how that timeline is going to look.

The Preparations

From our point of view as coaches, the draw is the next stage of being able to plan properly. We have a plan in place that will trigger as soon as that draw is made, because not only will we know who our group stage opponents are but also who we might face further down the line. We’ll know which teams we need to be researching properly and in detail over the next few months and most importantly, which dates we’re going to be playing on. Our analysis department will put all of that in place and we’ll have footage of the other teams good to go from Friday night. We’ll also have a plan of how we will cover games in the tournament. We feel it’s important to get those details right as they can give you an advantage and we don’t want to leave any stone uncovered.

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The Country

I’d never been to Russia until last summer so I found it interesting, learnt a lot and enjoyed the experience. I know there have been concerns about the tournament, but that wasn’t the impression we got when we were there. There’s a great deal of excitement in Russia about hosting the tournament and the atmospheres at the stadiums were very good and the level of security everywhere was really high. The Russian people want this to be a showcase for their country so I’m confident that it will be a real success. The stadiums have all been pretty much purpose-built for the World Cup and there are some spectacular venues and wonderful settings for them as well, so I believe it has the makings of being a great tournament.

By Gareth Southgate England manager Moscow, Russia

'What is a good draw?'