England

Gareth Southgate: 'Continuity is important'

By Matt Law, Football Editor | 30 August 2018

England boss Gareth Southgate says that "continuity" was in his mind when he selected his first squad following the 2018 World Cup.

England boss Gareth Southgate has said that "continuity" was in his mind when he selected his first squad following the 2018 World Cup.

England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 competition in Russia before losing to Croatia, and will now switch their attention to the upcoming internationals with Spain and Switzerland.

The Three Lions will open their UEFA Nations League campaign against Spain on September 8, before taking on Switzerland in a friendly on September 11.

Southgate has made five changes to the squad that competed at the World Cup, with Luke Shaw, Alex McCarthy, James Tarkowski, Adam Lallana and Joe Gomez all coming in.

"Really we're on the back of a successful tournament. We picked a squad in the summer that we believed were the best players for that," Southgate told reporters.

"Not too much will have changed in that time because we reached the semi-final and there's only been three league games. We wanted some continuity."

Phil Jones and Nick Pope both missed out on a spot in the squad through injury, while Ashley Young, Jamie Vardy and Gary Cahill have all been left out.