Gareth Southgate could have been braver in England’s agonising World Cup defeat to France – Jamie Carragher

England recovered to level at 1-1 in the 54th minute via a Harry Kane penalty, and were on top for much of the ensuing period.

But they succumbed to a sucker punch from Olivier Giroud late on and were unable to find the equaliser, with Kane squandering his chance to find a second leveller from the spot six minutes from time after Mason Mount had been shoved over.

Southgate did bring on Mount, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish – but all of them entered the fray after England had gone behind.

“I think when you lose a game there are always things you can look back on and think you could have done differently,” Carragher told Sky Sports.

“I did feel before the game that England had to be brave from the bench in terms of making substitutions.

“It just felt that in the period between the two goals [Kane’s equaliser and Giroud’s winner], I think we could have been braver from the bench.

“I certainly think now with five substitutions it’s a big part of a manager’s role to try and influence and change the game.

“I know Southgate’s been criticised for that in the past in the games against Croatia [in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals] and Italy [in the 2020 Euros final].

“And those changes would’ve been different because England were basically trying to stop the pressure from the opposition, and both those sides – if we’re being honest – were better than us.

“I don’t think France were better than us last night, and I felt the change should have been to actually go and win the game, not to stop the opposition.

“With the strength England have got on the bench – certainly the strongest bench in the competition, I firmly believe that – I just think we could have been a little bit more proactive in that period when it was 1-1, when we were playing really well.”

Carragher nonetheless called for Southgate to stay on as England manager, and thinks the players will be “angry” as they reflect on what’s gone, and what’s to come – the 2024 European Championships in just 18 months time.

The ex-Liverpool defender said: “I think the feeling amongst the players leaving will be that they can’t wait to get back into this arena of tournament football.

“The last two tournaments is almost that England have been gallant losers – we’ve been so proud of them and they’ve just missed out.

“I think this group of players and manager now should be angry in some ways, and that’s almost like a compliment because they’re too good to accept losing in a good fashion and say how unlucky they were, and ‘let’s look to the next tournament’.

“That game last night was there to be won.”