I hope he stays – Declan Rice backs Gareth Southgate to continue as England boss

Declan Rice insists England’s World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of France is not the fault of Gareth Southgate and backed the manager to stay in charge.

Skipper Harry Kane skied a penalty as France won 2-1 at Al Bayt Stadium to set up a semi-final clash with Morocco.

Having earlier cancelled out Aurelien Tchouameni’s fine opening strike with a well-taken spot-kick, equalling Wayne Rooney’s England 53-goal scoring record in the process, Kane blazed over a second after Olivier Giroud’s deflected header had put France back ahead.

Les Bleus held on to continue their quest to retain the World Cup, while the inquest into England’s exit began on the full-time whistle.

It will undoubtedly include speculation as to whether Southgate should remain in the job despite taking the nation to the semi-finals four years ago in Russia and to the Euro 2020 final last summer.

Southgate, whose contract runs until 2024, said after the loss he will take time to decide what his immediate future holds but Rice was unequivocal when asked whether he wanted the 52-year-old to remain in the post.

“He said he’s so proud of us and so did Steve (Holland),” the West Ham captain said of Southgate’s post-match chat.

“If you guys could come in and see how well everyone’s been on it, you would have thought we would have gone the whole way as a collective but for me, personally, I hope he stays.

“Obviously, I don’t know. There’s a lot of talk around that. I think he’s been brilliant for us. I think there’s a lot of criticism that’s not deserved. I think he’s taken us so, so far. Further than what people can expect.

“He got everything spot on again, it’s not on him. It’s not on him at all – the tactics were right, we played the right way.

“We were aggressive, we stopped (Kylian) Mbappe, he was quiet. Ultimately, it was two goals against the run of play and that’s not down to the manager, it’s down to us on the pitch.

“I really hope he stays because the core group that we’ve got and what he’s made for us, it’s so special to be a part of, I love playing under him and I love playing for England.”

Rice also believes England have altered the expectations heading into major tournaments and has backed a youthful squad to recover from the setback.

“I think you can see on my face right now I’m distraught because we really believe this year that it could be a year,” he added.

“We obviously got to a Euros final, we’ve really progressed well as a team over the last few years and we really felt as a team – we weren’t overconfident – but we were confident enough to know that we could go out there and beat France and that’s the mentality switch that England have not had over the years.

“We win together, we lose together. It’s just obviously really hard to process at the moment.

“We’ve come so far, I think that’s credit to the manager, the spirit that he’s brought to this team and togetherness that we’ve got.

“I think we’ve handled it so well, if you look at the squad we are so young, but we’ve got so many top players.

“We’ve got to a semi-final, Euros final, obviously crashed out here at a quarter-final but in my opinion the better team lost and that shows how far we have come.”

Despite the improvements, Rice admits England need to deliver a major trophy to silence any remaining doubters, adding: “I think sometimes the negativity surrounding will go away once we have won something again.

“I think there will always be that pressure on us but I feel like it’s starting to sway that way that we’re getting back to a level where people are believing in us and the country is backing us.

“But we need to go again because ultimately international football is based on what you win, we haven’t won for years so that is what we want to try and do.

“I think there’s so many players here that are 19, 20 or 21 who are stepping up on the biggest stage, As a neutral, there is a lot that you don’t know what goes through a footballer’s mind on the pitch in a game of that magnitude.

“We’re England, the mentality has changed now like I said, and we’ll be back for sure.”