LEE CARSLEY SENDS POINTED MESSAGE TO ENGLAND FANS AFTER SURPRISE PICKS IN FIRST SQUAD

Lee Carsley began his audition for the England job by declaring: Let me entertain you.

Carsley has effectively got six games to set out his credentials to get the role full time and promised to deliver an attacking brand of football. England fans regularly complained that Gareth Southgate was too cautious in his approach despite leading the nation to two major finals.

Carsley sprang a surprise by calling up Lille’s former Manchester United midfielder Angel Gomes was one of eight recent graduates from his England under-21 set-up.

England interim boss Carsley said: “The amount of players we’ve got available to us in terms of their attributes and strengths, we’re really lucky in that department. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s easier to be attacking when you’ve got a lot of attacking options.

“The majority of my teams when I was playing were very defensive. When I started coaching, it was something I wanted to try and get away from. I’d played in teams where you were very well-organised and you sat in and every now and then you had the ball, and then you broke.

“But I was mindful as a coach of how I wanted the players to feel. I want our players to be on the ball, I want our team to attack. I want us to be expansive.”

Carsley, who led England under-21s to European Championships glory last year, picked Gomes, Levi Colwill, Tino Livramento, Rico Lewis, Morgan Gibbs-White, Noni Madueke, Anthony Gordon and Cole Palmer for the Nations League fixtures with Republic of Ireland and Finland. They all know him through the St George’s Park set-up and are recent graduates from the under-21s and Carsley is in the box seat to also step up and succeed Southgate if he can prove he can also deliver for the seniors.

Carsley said: “Every time we’d pick an Under 21s team, we expect to win, we expect to play in a certain way, I can’t see that being any different with the senior team. If they come in and they feel that and believe that I think we can have a really good three months.”

But Carsley deliberately sidestepped questions on whether he actually wanted the job on a permanent basis despite admitting it was one of the best jobs in world football.

Carsley added: “To be honest I’ve not thought about it that much. I don’t think by any means it’s a blueprint that just because you did the Under 21s you’re in a perfect position to take the senior team. Ultimately this is up there with the best jobs in football.

“We’ve potentially got a unique period of time, which will pass, where we’ve got some outstanding players, some really good talent, someone needs to get the absolute best out of them.

“And we have done so far because we’ve got to the latter stage of tournaments, we’ve been so close. The best person for the job will do it.”

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2024-08-29T21:40:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd