Gareth Southgate: England cannot rely on Jude Bellingham alone to win Euros

Gareth Southgate has challenged his other “matchwinners” to step up and issued a warning that England cannot just rely on Jude Bellingham to win the European Championship.

Bellingham scored the only goal in the tense 1-0 win over Serbia, which means England top Group C, and was deservedly named man-of-the-match for his outstanding performance.

However, there was debate over the form of England’s other forward players, especially Phil Foden. Bukayo Saka impressed, and helped create the goal, and Harry Kane improved after half-time and had a header pushed onto the cross-bar, but there was not the usual attacking threat from him.

Indeed Serbia had more attempts at goal with six to England’s five in what was the fewest shots in any Euros fixture since 1980. It was also highlighted that Kane managed just two touches in the first-half while Foden worked hard defensively on the left but struggled to have an impact further forward.

Asked how he can get the best out of his creative players, including Trent Alexander-Arnold who started in midfield, Southgate agreed it was a challenge. He added: “But I don’t think you’re ever going to play a match where every player … not every player can star in every game.

“What’s important is that different people pop up with the moments like Jude did. When I go through the history of our big games, there’s always been a different match-winner, a different guy to take the headlines and that’s as it will be if we are going to win a tournament.”

Southgate’s argument is sound. At the last World Cup the goals were spread around while at the previous Euros Raheem Sterling started strongly before Kane made his contribution as England reached the final.

But there will be a different level of attention on Bellingham given the extraordinary impact the Real Madrid midfielder and Champions League winner has already made for his club and country.

It also means he will, clearly, become more and more a marked man and the 20-year-old came in for some heavy treatment from Serbia – he was fouled four times – especially after scoring his fine header in the 13th minute.

Still by the time he was substituted, after 86 minutes, Bellingham, playing in the No 10 role behind Kane, had registered the most touches (92) of any player on the pitch. Usually that is achieved by a centre-half or defensive midfielder. His performance prompted a tweet from Paul Gascoigne which read: “Unbelievable talent”.

Bellingham, who is already playing in his third major tournament, has now scored the opening goal in an England World Cup finals campaign – against Iran in Dec 2022 – and now in a Euros. Only Michael Owen previously achieved that feat before turning 21.

“He writes his own scripts,” Southgate said of Bellingham after the victory over Serbia. “He welcomes that attention and he keeps delivering. He had some outstanding moments in the game with and without the ball.

“And equally I have to say that our two wide players (Saka and Foden) and our two central midfield players (Declan Rice and Alexander-Arnold) did a great job of working around him. When you have a player in that area of the pitch making the runs he does others have got to balance that off. The rest of the team defended well around that as well as him playing his part.”

Even so, Southgate acknowledged that England cannot expect Bellingham to be their matchwinner and others must try and share that responsibility.

Southgate is also acutely aware of the importance of not heaping too much attention – and pressure – on one player as has happened in the past with England.

Prior to flying to Germany, Southgate warned against the danger of “putting everything on Jude” and said it needed to be the “collective thing to go and try to win this tournament”. He said: “If we are relying on one person that isn’t going to be a team that wins it. He is, of course, a player with fabulous mentality and will have a big impact on the whole group.”

Southgate defends Kane’s performance

The England manager went on to defend Kane’s contribution, in particular, when asked about the captain. “I thought second-half he did an incredible job holding the ball up, the number of fouls that he won, got his body across well,” he said.

“There isn’t space in that front line for everybody to be on the ball in every moment. In the first-half Bukayo was obviously prominent. Jude was prominent. Trent and Phil had moments. So, Harry didn’t get as much of the ball but in the second-half his performance was absolutely crucial to us getting the win.”

England now face Denmark in Frankfurt on Thursday afternoon with Southgate juggling fitness concerns, adding that he will have to “assess” from “game-to-game” and said he deliberately went for an “experienced team in terms of international and club” against Serbia.

“We are dealing with the cards we have been handed and trying to find the best way with that so really pleased that given the circumstance, we’ve managed to show the resilience we did,” Southgate said.

If England win, and Serbia and Slovenia draw, then they will be guaranteed top spot in their group. It would then allow Southgate the option of resting and rotating ahead of the final group tie against Slovenia in Cologne next Tuesday.

The win over Serbia will come as a relief, given England’s troubled build-up to the tournament with key players such as Harry Maguire dropping out and others not being fully fit or in form and defensive concerns. Bellingham was not involved in either warm-up game against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland because of the Champions League Final.