England have been ‘trying to find a solution in midfield’ for eight years, says Southgate

England have been 'trying to find a solution in midfield for eight years', says SouthgateSource: Sky Sports Football

Transcript

00:00Well, it's clear in terms of the balance of the team that we don't have our best left-back available.

00:07So that denies you the opportunity for that balance.

00:13But I think Tripps has done an incredible job for the team.

00:16So, you know, his spirit, his organisation, his desire have helped us get over the line in the last two games.

00:24So that's in no way a criticism of him.

00:27But it's obviously going to be different with a right footer there than a left.

00:32We have been trying to find a solution in midfield for seven or eight years.

00:38If we hadn't had Declan Rice for the last few years, I don't know where we'd have been.

00:42Unfortunately, Calvin wasn't a possible for us for this tournament, Hendo the same.

00:48So we're trying to find something different.

00:50And some of that has worked, some of that hasn't worked so well.

00:56But over the years, that's been a consistent problem.

00:59We've tried to find the best way of solving and we've got to do that in the coming weeks as well.