Published 11 June 2022 5 min read
England Men's Senior Team
'Let's keep working' say Mount and Southgate
Three Lions pair assess the draw with Italy as England go into fourth and final Nations League match of June
11 Jun 2022
2:24
Highlights: England 0-0 Italy
Watch the best of the action from Molineux
England midfielder Mason Mount and boss Gareth Southgate gave their thoughts on Saturday’s draw with Italy at Molineux.
The Three Lions were held in their third UEFA Nations League game of the week, with Southgate’s side still searching for their first win following last week’s defeat to Hungary and draw in Germany.
But both Mount and his boss are hoping they can build on the plus points from Saturday’s performance ahead of the return fixture with Hungary on Tuesday.
“Today was obviously a clean sheet, so it is something that is a positive in the game but we do need to keep working at it,” said Mount.
“I think we have had chances and we probably should have scored but sometimes you go through those little periods where it is difficult. The only thing we can do is keep working hard in training and keep staying focused.
“We need to look at the chances and look at where we can improve. We’ve got the players to do that, we’ve got the talent and we have the quality so we just need to keep working at it.
“Of course we want to win every game we’re involved in, even if it’s a friendly it doesn’t matter to us. These are Nations League Games and we want to win, so it’s something that we looked at and looked at the last two games. Coming into this one we felt confident in what we could do.”
Southgate added: "There were things we did really well in Germany and things that we needed to improve upon. We improved upon a lot of those things today.
“Getting the ball through their midfield press and into the next line we were much better at and we have had two or three really good chances that we need to score and we just lack that little bit of sharpness in the final third.
“But the general performance I was pleased with and I felt there were a lot of positive individual performances, players that we needed to see who have gone in and done well.
“So at the moment that little bit of sharpness isn’t there, but I was pleased with the general performance.”
Having made changes from the team which started in the game with Germany last week, Southgate also revealed he was pleased with some of the players who came in.
“I thought that Aaron Ramsdale did very, very well today, he’s made a couple of really important saves and I thought that his composure with the ball is exactly what we hoped for,” he said.
“I thought Fikayo [Tomori] also did really well and I’m really pleased that he has come through from the slight injury he had and that is going to give us more depth in that area of the pitch.
“I thought James Ward-Prowse did really well today. He used the ball well, he controlled the game and his passing was good.”
11 Jun 2022
2:24
Highlights: England 0-0 Italy
Watch the best of the action from Molineux
One thing the whole group will be looking forward to on Tuesday is running out in front of a sold-out crowd for the game with Hungary.
And after starting with two away games and then a home match with limited spectators, Southgate believes that hasn’t helped his side.
“This has been a difficult series of games because two away games, one of which was Hungary, and you can see how difficult they are to play against from their result [1-1] with Germany,” he explained.
“Then to go to Munich, and then when we have the home advantage we don’t have the advantage because we don’t have a crowd.
“So, that has been tough for the players because physically and psychologically that’s tough and you know at a stadium like this, the crowd can really lift you so without a doubt we’re looking forward to that on Tuesday.”