Jamie Carragher passionately DEFENDS Gareth Southgate despite Alexander-Arnold and Gomez snubs | OneFootball

Jamie Carragher has defended Gareth Southgate for England's Euro 2024 performances despite the Three Lions boss largely ignoring Liverpool stars Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez.

Despite playing poorly throughout the tournament and riding their luck enormously, England did reach the final of Euro 2024 against Spain.

However, their luck ran out on Sunday evening as they fell to an underwhelming 2-1 defeat against the tournament's most impressive side.

That's now heartbreak for Southgate and the Three Lions at the last two Euros, finishing runners-up in both tournaments.

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Southgate has been widely criticised throughout Euro 2024 for his team selection and tactical approach, with his loyalty to underperforming players and negative play style frustrating supporters.

For example, Alexander-Arnold - England's most creative player - accumulated just 134 minutes for his country, most of which came in midfield. Joe Gomez, who enjoyed a great season at Anfield, didn't feature at all.

However, former Liverpool defender Carragher has supported Southgate on social media, blaming the players for England's final defeat instead.

JAMIE CARRAGHER BACKS ENGLAND BOSS GARETH SOUTHGATE

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Carragher made a series of posts regarding England's final defeat to Spain, but largely backed Southgate despite a poor performance.

"Sven [Goran Eriksson] played 442, Fabio [Capello] was too strict, Gareth is too defensive! Funny how it’s always on the manager isn’t it?!! The fact is our big players didn’t turn up in this tournament. And other tournaments going back years," stated the 38-cap former England international.

"International football is not littered with top managers, it’s about the players. Ours froze in that first half, allowing the keeper to go long & not demanding the ball & showing for it," he added in response to one user's post.

Responding to a post about England's low expected goals tally, Carragher continued: "Exactly! Big players didn’t turn up!! We had about 60% possession until the final because we played average teams. You blame Southgate for some of the best attacking players in Europe not being able to break average defences down???"

It would be interesting to hear Carragher's thoughts on Southgate's use of Alexander-Arnold at Euro 2024 given England were crying out for creativity in the final third.

Given Kyle Walker's desperate displays, it's almost laughable that the Liverpool defender didn't earn more minutes in his orthodox position.

The positive from a Liverpool perspective is that both Alexander-Arnold and Gomez will return to the AXA Training Centre fairly fresh despite travelling across Germany this summer.

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