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Matt Le Tissier calls Gareth Southgate decision the most 'horrific' he has seen by an England boss

  /  autty

Matt Le Tissier has slammed Gareth Southgate for making the most 'horrific decision' by an England manager he has seen in his life.

The Southampton legend was a guest on the 'Up Front with Simon Jordan' podcast with William Hill.

While speaking about the pressure of taking penalties, the 54-year-old reflected on England's Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy.

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka, then aged 19, missed the decisive penalty in what was the first spot-kick of his professional career.

Le Tissier slammed Southgate's decision to give Saka the penalty, while also questioning how well the Three Lions manager has actually done since he took over the job.

'That was the most horrific decision made by an England manager I have ever seen in my life,' he told former Crystal Palace owner Jordan.

'I think he (Southgate) has done the bare minimum of what should have been expected given the teams we played against.'

'Look at the positions that were in when we should have gone on; I think the decisions that were made were responsible for why we didn't kick on.

'I thought that in both the Croatia [World Cup 2018 semi-final] and Italy games, we went 1-0 up and we didn't go to kill the game off. We sat back and we invited the team onto us.'

Despite his criticism towards the England manager, he questioned who else is out there who could come in and replace him.

He said: 'I think the more relevant point is who else is there? I think an Englishman should manage England because you are representing your country.

'It's having pride in your country. If you are going to have an international tournament where all your players have to be English, I think your manager should be under the same rules as your players as you are all in the same squad, so why are there different rules for the manager and his eligibility than there are for the players?

'I have this innate feeling inside me about fairness and about trying to do things properly and my feeling is that if you are the manager of a national team, you should be that nationality.'

Saka was one of three players to miss from the spot during the penalty shootout.

His miss followed those made by Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, and all three were subject to racist abuse on social media in the aftermath of the game.

It is not the first time that Le Tissier has laid into Southgate over the European Championships.

In November, he said that the 'woke' England boss would not take his advice on taking penalties.

He told GBNews: 'I have on occasions in the past approaching World Cups and European Championships offered my services to go and coach the players, if they want some advice on taking penalties.

'To be fair, I mean, there were probably other managers that may have been more likely to listen than the woke Mr Southgate.

'I would quite happily take a penalty still, at my age. I really enjoyed the pressure of those situations.'