England interim manager Lee Carsley believes he is capable of taking the job on a full-time basis, but conceded he had his doubts.
Carsley oversaw a 2-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland in his first match in charge since stepping in to replace Gareth Southgate on a temporary basis.
An extended audition continues on Tuesday when England take on Finland in their second Nations League match.
And Carsley acknowledged the performance and result against Ireland, who he represented as a player, has provided a much-needed confidence boost.
He said: In the back of your mind you always think you know, it s easy to be the England manager, isn t it, when you re sat in the house.
There have been times when I ve thought I m not sure if I could do it.
But it has done my confidence good, and the rest of the staff as well, that actually we re OK, we ll be all right.
I spoke about it at the first press conference, [being] a safe pair of hands. I feel like we’re in a good position with the players.
I think it s natural to have doubts.
Going into the Euros with the Under-21s, with the record that we ve got, there was a worry we could go home in 10 days. But I ve learned with experience and dealing with setbacks, having good people around you, that it gets easier.
England managed some slick play in Dublin, in particular for their second goal, when Jack Grealish – returning to the fold after he was left out of the Euro 2024 squad – tucked home at the culmination of a sweeping team move.
Brilliant team move. Brilliant finish.
Shot on Google Pixel
— England (@England)
The Three Lions controlled possession (76.4%), had 16 shots and accumulated 2.67 expected goals (xG), while Carsley handed starts to Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, Anthony Gordon on the left flank and then brought on Morgan Gibbs-White and Angel Gomes for their debuts.
The end goal is doing that against the top teams in the world in the biggest moments, said Carsley.
They have got two years to get to that point [before the 2026 World Cup]. We have gone a good way to doing that. We ve had four training sessions, so it s early. The players have to take huge credit for trying a few things that we have worked on and going out there and doing it for themselves.
We have to be careful with the term freedom . We have tried to get really effective players in really effective areas, to do what they re good at.
If you call that freedom, maybe it is. But within that there comes a real responsibility out of possession. I thought we did really well in that area. We made the pitch really small and were able to suffocate Ireland and get the ball back.
