Lee Carsley addresses England future as he slams players over Greece loss | Football | Sport

Lee Carsley refused to commit himself to putting his name forward for the England job on a permanent basis following a disastrous 2-1 defeat to Greece at Wembley on Thursday.

The England Under-21s boss was appointed on a temporary basis after Gareth Southgate stepped down in August and guided the Three Lions to successive 2-0 victories over Finland and Republic of Ireland.

But his side came unstuck against a valiant Greece side, who had originally asked for the game to be postponed following the tragic death of their English-born player George Baldock.

The defeat may raise questions about Carsley’s suitability to the job on a full-time basis, and he gave no guarantees he would be keen to carry on in his temporary role.

When asked if the result would affect his future, Carsley told ITV Sport: “[My role is] unchanged, unchanged. My remit is to do the three camps and nothing changes in that respect.”

Despite suffering through an emotional ordeal, Ivan Jovanovic’s side thoroughly deserved their victory at Wembley. Vangelis Pavlidis opened the scoring after some shambolic defending from the Three Lions, which came after the visitors had a goal ruled out.

Pavlidis then had another goal struck off for offside before Jude Bellingham’s long-distance goal brought England. But Pavlidis celebrated a last-gasp winner in stoppage time to spark incredible celebrations amongst the 4,000 Greece supporters.

Carsley trialled a bold experiment with an ultra-attacking formation which appeared to backfire, starting Jude Bellingham as a false nine and giving hybrid roles to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rico Lewis.

But the 50-year-old said he was disappointed with the performance nonetheless and questioned the ability of his squad after conceding his side were outplayed.

“I think that we were probably second-best tonight, which is disappointing, Carsley added.”We tried something different, we tried to overload the midfield and play a little bit differently.

“It’s something we tried for 20 minutes yesterday, it’s something we experimented with and it was disappointing it didn’t come off. But it’s probably unrealistic to expect too much and it’s a case of trying again.”

Carsley then said: “I think it sums up the quality we’ve got, look at all of the goals tonight, they all come from mistakes which is disappointing. But even at 1-1, we were quite fortunate at that point.”