World Cup 2022: Gareth Southgate wants players to make it ‘best’ period for England
The tournament could see a breakthrough on the international stage for teenage midfielder Jude Bellingham, who has staked his claim as a starter in the first team.
The 19-year-old has featured 22 times for Borussia Dortmund this season, scoring nine goals, and was named club captain for the first time in October.
“He has tremendous maturity for his age,” Southgate said. “[He is] mature in how he works, how he trains, how he speaks. He competes – it is probably the thing we love about him more than anything else.
“That has a line at times and undoubtedly there will be moments, while he is young, that it will be crossed. But he’s a very exciting player and he’s one we’ve got a good body of experience into early, really.
“He went to the Euros. We thought it was a good experience for him, but he wanted more. We were thinking, for a 17-year-old, this is a really good transition.
“But his mentality is, no, no, no. He wants to start, he wants to take corners, he wants to captain the team, whatever it is.”
England have Covid plans
Coronavirus restrictions were eased in Qatar on 1 November, meaning visitors no longer need proof of a negative PCR or antigen test to enter the country.
Southgate is hoping Covid will not prevent those in the England camp from seeing their partners and families during the tournament.
“We’re still a little bit fluid on that,” he explained. “We almost prefer to under-promise and over-deliver.
“We would like it to happen [for players to see their families]. We think it is a significant part of a team feeling relaxed and feeling comfortable.
“But at the moment, none of us know what the transmission rate is likely to be out there.
“Families are obviously going to be mixing in bigger numbers with people at the stadiums and things like that. We’re going to have to track that.
“There might be ways of doing that more securely outside, so we have some plans in place. We want that to happen, but need to monitor it quite closely.”
