Today’s back pages: England boss Gareth Southgate wants ‘lions not lambs’

Gareth Southgate has warned his England stars that they must “raise the bar” and become winners or risk their international football futures.

The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Metro and Independent all report that the Three Lions head coach has urged his team to keep on improving after reaching the semi-finals of the Fifa World Cup and Uefa Nations League.  

With qualification for Euro 2020 now the focus, Southgate says that if players don’t perform or cope with the pressure of expectation they could be ditched from the national team.

He said: “I think we created an environment that took a bit of pressure off the players and we want them to relax, to express themselves, we’ve talked a lot about them but there now comes a point where, actually, we’ve got to demand more and we’ve got to find another edge.

“I’ve got to make sure that I’m constantly raising the bar with this group and we don’t accept any kind of sloppiness to creep in.”