‘We lacked sharpness’ – Gareth Southgate laments England’s struggles in front of goal after draw with Italy

The only goal scored in the same timeframe, was from the 12-yard spot, as Harry Kane expertly dispatched a late penalty against Germany at the Allianz Arena to salvage a point.

Speaking after the game, England boss Southgate said his forward players have “lacked sharpness” in front of goal.

“There were things we did really well in Germany, and things we needed to improve upon, and we improved upon a lot of those things today,” Southgate said. “Getting the ball through their midfield press, and into the next line, we were much better at.

“We’ve had two or three really good chances that we need to score, and we just lacked that little bit of sharpness in the final third.

“The general performance, I was pleased with it. I thought there were a lot of positive individual performances, players we needed to see and who have gone in and done well.”

Southgate lamented the lack of a vociferous crowd, due to the stadium ban after trouble at the Euro 2020 final.

He said: “You can’t ignore the fact that when you’re really pushing, and I thought (in the) second half we were the much better team, you don’t have any crowd to help you or put the opposition under pressure, and it makes a massive difference to the team.”

Southgate went on to deny calls that England have been too “conservative” in some matches, insisting he’s made plenty of changes further forward.

He said: “I don’t see how you can really (call that performance cautious).

“We tried to move the ball forward through an organised team, we’ve got the ball into our forward players and given them a go, we’ve tried to refresh it because we know the stage of the season that we’re at, so I think at the moment the little bit of sharpness in the final third isn’t quite there, but I was pleased with the general performance.”

Harry Kane was left on the bench as Tammy Abraham was given a start after an impressive season at Roma, and Southgate admitted his side had been too reliant on certain players in front of goal.

“I’ve said earlier in the week we’ve been too reliant on Harry (Kane) and Raheem (Sterling) for our goals,” Southgate said. “Other players have got to step into that space, a number of them do it for their clubs, but at international level at the moment they haven’t managed to convert that.

“We’ve looked dangerous without getting the goals needed in the bigger games.”