Gareth Southgate's Euro 96 penalty miss means he knows a thing or two about abuse, making him all the more wary about the way social media could impact on his England Under-21 side's European Championship hopes.
The Young Lions' fifth straight appearance in the finals is likely to end in a third successive group-stage exit unless they beat Sweden in Olomouc on Sunday.
Portugal's 1-0 triumph in their Group B opener means England are in a precarious position and has naturally led to a flood of criticism on social media.
Southgate is only using his Twitter account to check his son's cricket results, with the tournament in full flow, and is wary of the way negative comments on social media could impact his players.
"I don't and I can't shield it for them, but would I suggest that it's not going to help them get in the right mind set by reading what some bloke who might have just had six pints says," he said.
"I remember when I was working for ITV getting some messages from people and then looking at maybe what their last 10 messages to people had been and quite often they were quite similar, quite vitriolic.
"Again, it is easy for me at 44 to rationalise it more. I don't think the lads would necessarily go through that and I go back to what I say to my daughter.
"Home is a place for young people where, for the majority, there is safety and security. Now, with social media you can be attacked in your own home.
"That, as a dad, bothers me because I don't think that's healthy and I think it is dangerous for young people, but I also move with the times and accept that we embrace social media.
"But for young people, there's a lot of negativity or adverse things that can come into that."
The ease and access such channels provide only exacerbates the issue in the opinion of Southgate, who is regularly reminded about his missed penalty in the Euro 96 semifinal against Germany.
"It still goes on," the former defender said of the abuse. "I still get it, absolutely. Some of our lads would be better prepared to handle that than others.
"They psychologically mature at different ages and can cope with things at different ages, [so it is about] having an understanding of them as individuals and what they can handle."
Southgate's main goal is to help the young players succeed with the England senior team -- a level he played at 57 times.
The experience he garnered during that period was partly behind his decision to have a low-key day after the Portugal defeat, with the players spending time with loved ones as well as doing a light recovery session and mini golf competition.
"The key over the last 24 hours has been to get some emotional stability in the group," Southgate said.
"We had a 48 hours where we lost John [Stones] and Saido [Berahino], then we lose the goal that's the outcome of such a random chain of events.
"With any defeat -- and this is a group that's not used to losing -- there's then a million theories as to why they've lost. Individually, they've all got their pictures of why.
"It's really important after the game to look at the realities of the game, statistically, and the evidence of what we've seen.
"The reality is all along we've said we need five points to get out the group. That's still achievable."
Southgate is planning to make some changes for Sunday's crucial encounter with Sweden -- he said he planned to do so even before Thursday's defeat -- and highlighted the importance of controlling the game in Olomouc.
"It's about keeping their nerve," he said. "Will the game be won in 20 minutes? Probably not.
"Wearing the opposition down is a problem we've faced throughout the campaign and it's very much that calmness that they're going to need on the field.
"But there's no reason for me to believe they can't do that, they've had to do that in several of the qualifiers.
"I still feel, performance-wise, they weren't far away against Portugal and so they've got to keep faith in what they're doing."
No comments:
Post a Comment