Speaking after Thursday evening’s Nations League defeat at the hands of Holland, England manager Gareth Southgate defended his players and their style of play after defensive errors in extra-time brought about their downfall in Guimaraes.
John Stones was identified as the chief culprit with the Manchester City man accused of being too casual in possession and suffering the consequences as the Dutch gained the victory their overall performance merited and they booked a place in Sunday’s final against Portugal.
That leaves England with an unwanted season-finale against Switzerland in a third/fourth place play-off but Southgate insisted afterwards he was not for turning.
"I'm asking them to play a tough game at the back - if we didn't play that way we wouldn't be here," he said.
"We didn't lose because of how we wanted to play; we lost because of poor execution and fatigue.
"It wasn't just the two goals, we made errors and gave opportunities which should have been punished before that."
At the Toulon Tournament on Friday evening, two late goals from Chile ensured England's Under-20 side ended without a win or a point, bringing to an end a successful run for Three Lions sides in the annual competition.
England’s Women are just under 48 hours away from their World Cup opener against Scotland, the tournament beginning on Friday evening with hosts France easily brushing aside South Korea.