Gareth Southgate to have heart-to-heart talks with England star following his horror show against Slovenia

Gareth Southgate is set to have heart-to-heart talks with one of his England stars after the struggles against Slovenia.

On Tuesday night, England produced a dismal performance as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Slovenia at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne.

Despite the draw, the Three Lions still managed to advance to the round of 16 as Group C winners.

As a result, Southgate’s team will take on Slovakia on Sunday, with the winner facing either Switzerland or Italy in the quarter-final.

Ahead of the clash against Slovakia, it has been revealed that Southgate will have private talks with midfielder Jude Bellingham after his struggles against Slovenia.

When asked about Bellingham, Southgate said: “I will have those messages with him rather than plaster them over the papers. It’s about the team. We have to play as a team at all times and some days the space will be where there is more opportunity for our wingers, as Slovenia defended narrow. Our wingers could show what they could do.

“It was a little bit harder to play through the middle. I thought Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka did very well and Cole Palmer obviously had a good impact when he came on. That is what a team is.”

He continued: “For everyone else you have to focus on individuals but for me it is about the team functioning and we were closer to where we want to be.”

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Bellingham, who joined Spanish giants Real Madrid last summer had a stunning debut season after he was named La Liga’s Player of the Season in his first season.

The 20-year-old scored 19 La Liga goals to help Madrid clinch the title by 10 points.

Despite the noise around his team’s performances, Southgate is adamant that they are heading in the right direction.

He said: “I know people will want more, I completely understand that, we’ve achieved our second objective which was to win the group. We know there’s more to come. It was definitely a step in the right direction.

“I think you always want to win the Group because you never want to to look back and think you dropped points and it’s cost you. I think we improved. We definitely used the ball better against Slovenia. I was very proud that the players kept their composure, because given where things have been at for the last week or so, it would be easy when you’re 0-0 to rush things, lose composure, end up in trouble.”

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