Gareth Southgate: I don't like Var — we have to obey referees' decisions

England coach Gareth Southgate during a press conference Photo: Reuters/Carl Recine

Gareth Southgate intensified growing criticism of Ware by insisting on the fact that the decisions of the judges must be accepted, and no system can provide a solution for making decisions.

Darren England Ware's error in Liverpool's defeat to Tottenham left officials in disarray, with Jurgen Klopp calling for last Saturday's match to be replayed, a view Telegraph columnist Jamie Carragher disagreed with.

The man behind Liverpool's offside goal fiasco was immediately told he had made a blunder and urged to 'stop the game' but insisted he 'couldn't do anything' — footage of the gaffe has been released on Tuesday evening.

The England manager, speaking at the announcement of his squad for the matches against Australia and Italy, cited Jesse Lingard's disallowed goal against the Netherlands in the 2019 Nations League semi-final as an example of his dissatisfaction with the video assistant referee.

“When you say, that I was on the front line, I was not for that. My first experience of this, I'm still not sure if Jesse Lingard's goal that knocked us out of the semi-final was legal or not,” Southgate said.

“So, I don't like [it] and I think we should just accept the judges' decisions, but I know we're unlikely to go back to a world where we don't have technology as part of the decision-making process. He could never solve all the problems and I don't think there is any solution that will achieve that.»

Southgate, meanwhile, recalled Jarrod Bowen to the England squad for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy , but missed out on Raheem Sterling again after dropping him last month.

Southgate said: “We said before the last squad, we were happy with the wide players, especially in the last four games, the team is playing well and obviously there is consistency there. Jarrod is playing very well and the game against Australia is an opportunity to learn something new.

“As for Callum Wilson, he was injured. Ollie has started the season well and has gotten into some good form over the last couple of weeks and you have to be careful with the recency bias but he is in good form. He plays for a team that is really well coached and they are in a good moment.»

Jarrod Bowen back in England squad Photo: Getty Images/Chris Brunskill

Bukayo Saka was also called up despite concerns that he could miss Arsenal's crucial Premier League clash with Manchester City at the weekend after limping off in the midweek defeat to Lens.

Southgate revealed that Sterling was unhappy that he was left out for the matches against Ukraine and Scotland, with the Chelsea striker not doing enough to merit a recall. Manchester United midfielder Mason Mount, back from injury, will also not be involved.

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins has been called up after fine form, including a hat-trick against Brighton last year week. Southgate watches from the stands.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and John Stones are back fit and included in the squad for the match against Italy at Wembley and the friendly against Australia next week. Ben Chilwell, Callum Wilson and Eberechi Eze are all ruled out through injury.

With Ben Chilwell and Luke Shaw injured, Southgate has Kieran Trippier to cover and will also look at Levi Colville.

< p>“We understand that most of his (Colville's) football was played at centre-back, but not so much at left-back, he played there regularly. That's an area where we need to learn about one or two players because there's not a lot of depth in that area in the league,” the England manager added.