England manager Gareth Southgate targets top FIFA ranking place - ‘Am I driven by being ranked No. 1? Yes’

Gareth Southgate says he is driven to make England the world’s top-ranked nation in the FIFA standings.

England are currently ranked fourth in the world behind Argentina, France and Brazil, but could rise to third when the next update is announced.

They have already reached Euro 2024 and are all-but guaranteed to be among the top seeds when the group stage draw is made.

Southgate was speaking ahead of Monday night’s final qualifier away to North Macedonia, which takes place three days after an underwhelming 2-0 win over Malta at Wembley.

The England boss is demanding an improvement in Skopje and believes the sub-par performance on Friday was because the qualifying job is already done - but he wants to find a new area to concentrate on.

“I feel almost as if we’ve talked too much about the Euros already and I didn’t see our focus in the right place,” he said.

“I think talk of the summer was a distraction on Friday. We’ve got to play better than we did against Malta.

“With the games at the weekend, we might be ranked third in the world at the minute but we’re two places off where we need to be so we can’t waste games. If we’re going to be a top team, then the level of performance has got to be spot-on every time.

“Am I driven by being ranked No. 1? Yes, because ultimately you achieve that through consistency. Also, it sets behaviours every day on the training pitch, off the training pitch.

“If you are going to be the top-ranked team, there’s no room for sloppiness or casualness. That’s got to be our drive. Clearly the way we played against Malta isn’t the image we want to leave of ourselves.”

Southgate confirmed that West Ham winger Jarrod Bowen has pulled out of the squad with a minor injury and hinted Manchester City's Rico Lewis could make his debut at left-back, where he has selection issues. Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier has left the squad due to a personal matter, while Manchester United’s Luke Shaw and Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell are missing through injury.

“He’s played there a few times, he’s played everywhere for Man City,” Southgate said of Lewis.

“I’m really pleased with how he’s trained.”

England thrashed North Macedonia 7-0 at Wembley in June, and they are looking to sign off 2023 unbeaten having already won eight matches, with one draw, this year.

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