Lee Carsley makes England vow despite Greece failure: 'It didn’t come off but we go again'

Lee Carsley suffered the first setback of his interim tenure as England boss, with the embarrassing Wembley defeat to Greece a big blow to his hopes of being permanent manager - despite his continued refusal to discuss it

Lee Carsley insists he will not get “too high or too low” after his first major setback as interim boss.

Carsley’s all-out experiment backfired in spectacular fashion and the optimism gained last month has quickly evaporated.

Greece, at 48th, became the lowest ranked side to beat England in a competitive home fixture since FIFA rankings began in 1992. They did not even qualify for a 32-team Euros last summer so there is no dressing it up as anything but a humiliation and embarrassment. It is a far cry from last month when England beat Republic of Ireland and Finland which led to Carsley insisting he was up for the job and could win major trophies.

Carsley’s chances have certainly not been finished in the minds of his bosses at the Football Association but England fans will probably take more convincing.

However, Carsley, 50, says his belief has not been shaken even if he is beginning to discover the perils of the so-called Impossible Job.

Carsley said: “I know it went so well in the last camp, we have had a disappointing result but I don’t get too high or too low. I am old enough to know it is a game of football. We have lost a game of football, we are forgetting that Greece were OK, they weren’t here just to lie down. Never too high, never too low.

“I have had enough setbacks in football to know you are never too far away and I have got to lead by example and I will, my belief in this team hasn’t changed, we need to be better and I include myself in that definitely.”

Carsley was undermined because he tried to squeeze Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden into the same line-up. It felt like PlayStation football because Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon started, too.

But, let’s be honest, quite a few TV and radio pundits and pub experts castigated Gareth Southgate for not trying the same when the former manager was branded too conservative. Maybe Southgate had a point after all.

Carsley is clearly an attack-minded coach and, even though he is likely to be more cautious in Finland on Sunday, he did not rule out another attacking experiment in the future. Carsley said: “The way I want my teams to play, I want us to attack and when we had the players we have available, I wanted to try something different.

“Hindsight is perfect because it never happened. It wouldn’t stop me trying something different in the future because I have done OK being like this. I had 17, 18, 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on the counter attack. That is definitely not how I want to coach. Nothing changes in that respect.

“We tried something, it didn’t come off, it could have gone the other way and we are talking about ‘we’ve found another way of playing.’ I’m really wary about ruling something out so quickly when we have literally done it for an hour. If any fingers get pointed, they’re at me, I wanted to try something, it didn’t come off but we go again.

“We have got some really good players in the squad that didn’t play that are more than capable as well. If it did click, what we have seen in glimpses of training, there is definitely some potential there.”

Carsley also believes nothing has changed in his prospects of getting the job permanently. He tripped himself up in the post-match press conference by talking about going back to the under-21s job when the reality is that will happen if he does not get the senior role.

He added: “I know it is a boring answer but nothing changes in my respect, the remit was to do the three camps and nothing has changed."

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