England

Gareth Southgate "looking forward" to challenge of managing England

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 02 October 2016

Gareth Southgate reveals that "continuity" was on his mind when selecting his first squad as England manager, despite being forced to make a number of changes.

Interim England boss Gareth Southgate has admitted that he is relishing the chance to guide his nation through their next set of qualifiers after naming his first squad.

The 46-year-old, placed in temporary charge by the Football Association this week following the sacking of Sam Allardyce, was forced to change things around due to numerous injury problems.

Harry Kane and Jack Butland are both nursing injuries, while Danny Drinkwater, Nathaniel Clyne and Adam Lallana picked up knocks this weekend and Luke Shaw is not yet fully fit.

The big news is that Glen Johnson is given an international lifeline, two years after last appearing for the Three Lions, while Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford are also included as Southgate makes five changes to the 23-man party from the 1-0 win over Slovakia.

"We've tried to keep some continuity from last month because my view would be that there are a lot of things that have been going right," he told the FA's official website.

"There are obviously a couple of players that I've worked with in the Under-21s with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, who we think are exciting young players who we wanted to put in this squad.

"It's obviously been a difficult week in a number of ways; however we are in a position now where it's important to get the squad named. I'm looking forward now to working with the players because it's important that we build on the performance and the result against Slovakia."

England take on Malta at Wembley next Saturday before heading to Slovenia for their third fixture in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.