Joe Gomez: Gareth Southgate criticises fans for booing England defender following Raheem Sterling altercation

The Three Lions boss was upset at the treatment of his player after entering the game at Wembley vs Montenegro

Gareth Southgate admits he does not understand England fans who booed Joe Gomez during the 7-0 thrashing of Montenegro.

The Liverpool defender was involved in an altercation with Raheem Sterling on Monday at the Three Lions’s St George’s Park training base.

Southgate dropped Sterling for the Euro 2020 qualifier on Thursday and has now spoken out over the fans who gave Gomez a hostile reception upon entering the game with 20 minutes to go.

“No, I don’t understand it. No England player should ever be booed,” Southgate told Sky Sports.

“We’re a team, Joe has done nothing wrong, absolutely.

“I’ve made that clear earlier in the week, so I don’t understand that.

“Him and Raheem are very close and the whole team are very close so we don’t want to see anybody treated in that way.”

Southgate then took time to praise his team’s attacking qualities.

Gomez enters the game amid boos at Wembley (Getty) (Getty Images)

“The attacking play, in the first half in particular, had some really good movement and super quality of passing and crossing and clinical finishing,” Southgate told ITV.

“We know it’s a group we should win comfortably but you can see across Europe there are other countries who have struggled to score goals like we have.

“We have struggled in the past against lower ranked teams who defend in numbers but we’ve got players who can open those teams up and a type of play that can do that.

“But we have to get both ends of the pitch right. We conceded a couple of chances tonight that we shouldn’t and they are the sort of things we will need to be better at. There is still work to do without the ball but we are improving.”