Gareth Southgate criticizes England’s attackers for not being “at our previous level” in the frustrating Euro 2024 qualifying draw against Ukraine in Poland

Gareth Southgate told his attacking players they weren’t good enough in the 1-1 draw with Ukraine in Euro 2024 qualifying and warned them that he doesn’t expect such sluggish performances again.

From James Maddison, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane to Jude Bellingham also joining the attack line, Southgate bluntly admitted that England were downright compared to their previous razor-sharp displays, which included victories in Italy and goal celebrations against North Macedonia was and Malta.

Southgate said: “Obviously most of our attacking play wasn’t at the level we were hoping for. “I think when we scored the goal we had over 70 per cent possession but that was our first shot on target.

“We turned around [lost] too many balls that we wouldn’t normally have. I wouldn’t expect that to happen again.

“We know the patterns we worked on during the week are what we always do, so it’s not like we’re approaching the game any differently.”

Gareth Southgate was unimpressed with England’s attacking players in their draw with Ukraine

Aside from Bukayo Saka hitting the crossbar, England’s chances were limited in Poland on Saturday

“We tried to freshen things up to give them a different kind of problem, but today, apart from the goal and Bukayo Saka’s shot that hit the crossbar, our forward play was not at the level of our previous games.”

Nevertheless, Southgate expressed satisfaction with the point as England are still firmly on course to qualify for Euro 2024 and the team returned to a bitterly partisan atmosphere as 45,000 Ukrainian exiles packed the Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw, southern Poland, where Because of the war, the team played its home game.

Southgate said: “The reality is we’re not going to win every game by four or seven, like we did in this qualifying campaign. “It was a really good test, away, very passionate atmosphere. This is a very important point for us because we have now played away against the two best-placed teams and got four points from these two games.

“What I liked was the control of the game we had when you came into an intense atmosphere like we did back then. “I thought we played with real composure until the final third, given the circumstances and the importance of the point for qualification and the deficit when the audience is full [of hope] and the opposition has something to cling to. That was a really good test, away from home.

“For people like Mark Guehi, for example, this is the first experience of this game against England, where he was really strong.” James Maddison would be someone who would never have taken part in an England game like this in the past. Ben Chilwell wouldn’t have played many of those games for us either.

“The only way to learn and grow as a team is to have experiences like this.” Going behind in a game like this is a challenge, but we stayed calm. And without a doubt, for some players it is a valuable experience to have this kind of experience.

“I think on a night like this the experienced players were really important to the team and I thought they all did a very, very good job.”

Southgate noted that Marc Guehi has come through his first tough test with England strongly