Phil Foden has backed Gareth Southgate ahead of England's crunch Euro 2024 quarter-final showdown with Switzerland.

The displays have led to questions over team selection and Southgate’s tactics and choices.

“I feel sorry for Gareth,” Foden said.

“In training he has been telling us to press and be high up on the pitch. Sometimes it has to come from the players. We have to be leaders and I feel like in games we could have got together more and worked out a ­solution. We have spoken about it more and if it happens again we can find a solution and adapt our press.

“The players have to take some of the blame. There has to be some leaders to get together. There is only so much the manager can do. He sets you up in a system and tells you how to press.

“You never decide when a person is going to drop deep as well. The players have to adapt to what the other team is doing to be better. Hopefully you will see a different side to us ­ pressing wise.”

England will be seeking an improved display when they face Switzerland in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Foden too will be looking to make his mark on the tournament, having not yet scored after starring for Manchester City last season, winning the Premier League's Player of the Season award.

“I’ve not been the best player in the Premier League to come here and not show it,” he said.

“[But] every game I’m moving little steps forward and, hopefully, I can put in good performances for England. That’s always been my aim to show it for the national team.

 “The first game was very quiet, in terms of how the game went I didn’t have much going forward for myself. The next games after that I grew. I came close a few times and I was offside [when scoring] in the last game. Against Denmark I hit the post.

"My performances have improved a lot and if [the shots] go in no-one’s saying anything.”

There has been a suggestion that getting Foden and Bellingham to work at their best in the same team is a difficult task.

But Foden said: “I don’t agree with that, I feel we do work good together.

“It’s just the way the games have gone sometimes and the way football works, [but] I feel like in the last game we did build on it really well, in terms of keeping the ball.

"We piled pressure on at the end and it can hopefully click together.”

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