Gareth Southgate insists England’s established stars deserve his loyalty because they would “die for each other” on the pitch.

Southgate’s side have gone two games without a win in the Nations League after rescuing a 1-1 draw in Germany in their Nations League group clash on Tuesday.

Harry Kane’s late penalty cancelled out Jonas Hofmann’s opener, but England boss Southgate has been criticised for being too loyal to his long-serving players after a pair of inconsistent displays.

Of the 14 players who featured in Munich, West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen was the only one who was not part of the England squad beaten by Italy in the European Championship final last year.

Seven of the starters against Germany were also in the line-up that lost to Croatia in the last four of the 2018 World Cup.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.