Gareth Southgate: Raheem Sterling has developed into a dressing-room leader for England

Raheem Sterling is developing into a senior influence in the England dressing room and has already taken young players like Jadon Sancho under his wing, Gareth Southgate has revealed. The Manchester City winger put in one of his finest performances for his country in the 3-2 win away to Spain, scoring twice, and the manager feels that is part of a more general maturation.

Southgate spoke of how Sterling made a point of going up to Sancho after the Borussia Dortmund teenager came on for his debut in the 0-0 away to Croatia, with that also aiding the spirit of a very positive England camp. Sterling would have known Sancho from Manchester City, but the manager revealed he was still struck by the attention that the older player showed.

“I think for the young ones that come in, it’s a really comfortable environment for them in that the other players make them feel so welcome. Raheem after the game the other night, straight over to Jadon in the dressing room, congratulating him on his first cap. It would be very easy for him to say actually he’s good competition for me and I’m gonna just put him to one side but training yesterday he was passing advice onto him and that sort of embodies the spirit of the group, which is crucial if we’re going to have any success.”

Southgate similarly felt that the Spain win was a coming-of-age night for other young players like Harry Winks and Ross Barkley.

Raheem Sterling has been helping to guide Jadon Sancho (Getty)

“Yeah we believe in these young players. Winks has played against Real Madrid and he’s played against Barcelona. He’s still got to go and produce the performance and I think with some young players you just don’t know until they’re given the opportunity… we’ve had a couple of players in Winks and Barkley who I haven’t been able to pick in nearly a year, because long-term injuries, [Nathan] Chalobah the same, and they definitely, in Ross’s case, benefitted from the training and fitness at Chelsea, and the way that Chelsea are playing we’re seeing a different element to his game, again not perfect, but his pass for the third goal was really top.

“There are some good players there, [Adam] Lallana who we’ve not been able to pick for quite a while, so, yeah, it’s great to have competition for places. You want it in all positions, you look at their squad and those that don’t make their squad, that’s where we want to get to.

“It’s huge credit to some very young players as well and inexperienced players who went into that game, the likes of Chilwell and Winks especially, to go an play with the confidence they did is a huge plus for them.”