Gareth Southgate Admits England Faced Difficulty In Euro 2024 Preparation

England is predicted not to be optimal in undergoing preparations for Euro 2024 (Instagram/@england).

JAKARTA - Gareth Southgate's plan, coach of the England national team, to make ideal preparations ahead of Euro 2024 was hampered by the club's schedule.

There is an agenda for the 2023/2024 Champions League and 2023/2024 Premier League which may interfere with the coach's design.

Just look, the schedule for the Three Lions trial is close to the Champions League final.

As is known, the Champions League final will be held at Wembley on Saturday, June 1, 2024, just two weeks before England begin their Euro 2024 journey against Serbia on June 16, 2024.

While the UK has drawn up plans for a warm-up match at St James's Park on Monday, June 3, 2024, and other matches at Wembley before the tournament.

Therefore, Southgate assessed that preparations for the departure to Germany to play Euro 2024 did not seem to have a maximum chance. There is a potential for many pillars to be absent from the test match.

In fact, he has started to predict the worst. Names like Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, and all Manchester City players, such as Kyle Walker, John Stones, Phil Foden, and Rico Lewis have the opportunity to miss the team's trial.

You see, clubs such as Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich have the potential to go far in the Champions League.

Not to mention the density of the 2023/2024 Premier League which ends on 19 May 2024.

He now has to rack his brain. Luckily, Southgate had a similar experience when dealing with the England national team for Euro 2020.

At that time, the Three Lions were faced with a busy schedule of players defending the club, namely Manchester City and Chelsea. Both teams fought until the 2020-2021 Champions League final at Porto before Euro 2020 began.

Chelsea-Man City last time happened. So, once again we are used to dealing with it. "

"You're eager to have all the players for all the preparation camps, but it's a difficult reality. We've handled it before, so we know what it looks like."

"It is important for them to get a kind of psychological break between the two (to defend the English club and national team)," Southgate said in the Mirror.

Before holding a trial at St James's Park, Southgate had already made two warm-up matches in March 2024.

England will meet Brazil and Belgium for the friendly as well as the final trial before announcing 23 players for Euro 2024.

In Group C Euro 2024, England will meet Serbia (June 16, 2023, Denmark (June 20, 2024), and Slovenia (June 25, 2024).