Gareth Southgate had a bone to pick with Cole Palmer despite the Chelsea star scoring his first goal for England on his first start for his country against Bosnia.
England ran out 3-0 winners at St James Park, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane also finding the net after Palmer scored from the spot.
impressed besides as he looks to earn a spot on the plane for Euro 2024, linking up well with Eberechi Eze, who made a similar mark.
Southgate praise the young pair for the freedom they showed on Monday, but claimed was trying to be too precise when he had a couple of opportunities to score.
The England manager told Channel 4: I thought they both played with the freedom.
Ebere has got lovely movement to go past players, he s got power. A couple of times, Cole was being too precise and if he got his shots away earlier maybe he could ve got a couple.
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On the performance as a whole, Southgate added: “We had an opponent that was dogged, determined, (there was a) good tempo to the game, so physically it was a good workout.
“We just had to be patient and we felt that in the end we’d create the chances. That’s how it turned out, really. I thought in the end the scoreline reflected the performance.”
But he gave no clues as to his thinking for his final 26-man squad, which also needs to be named on Friday.
