Gerrard: Young England stars can shake off ‘huge fear’

Ian Watson

Steven Gerrard: Believes England have potential

Former captain Steven Gerrard is convinced England can take things “to the next level” with the right man in charge.

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce has been for talks with the Football Association as one of the candidates to succeed Roy Hodgson.

Hull’s Steve Bruce, Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe and United States head coach Jurgen Klinsmann are all said to also be among those on the shortlist of FA technical director Dan Ashworth, chief executive Martin Glenn and vice-chairman David Gill.

Gerrard won 114 caps for England before retiring after the 2014 World Cup, the former Liverpool midfielder having played under a string of national team bosses from Kevin Keegan to Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello and Hodgson.

The 36-year-old, who joined Major League Soccer side the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2015, believes once the new man is at the helm, he will inherit a group of players much stronger for the bitter disappointment of Euro 2016.

“This experience and this hurt, I think, will help all of those players moving forward because they won’t want to experience it again,” Gerrard said in an interview with Virtual Reality company Laduma.

“They will want to improve and get better, and I think with the right manager and the right coaching staff around this group, they can take it to the next level.”

Gerrard added: “There’s a huge fear amongst the group at the moment. The expectations are very, very high.

“It is a very pressured situation to be an England player, you know, the media coverage is huge.

“The expectation is huge and there’s a very young set of players there who are not used to that pressure, but they will be used to it in years to come.”

England: Wales up next

Gerrard believes England should go into the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with renewed hope.

“I think everyone’s sort of healing from the disappointment of the tournament, but what I can say is the FA and the players and the new staff coming in will get it right,” he added.

“It will improve and it won’t be too long before the fans are smiling again, that’s what I believe.

“I believe in looking forward and trying to improve things and I’ve got every confidence that everyone involved trying to make it improve will make that happen.”