England boss Southgate to make players re-watch World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia

Gareth Southgate to make players re-watch World Cup defeat to Croatia [Courtesy]

Gareth Southgate is planning to make his England players watch a video nasty of their World Cup heartbreak.

Several players have already admitted they have not been able to relive the semi-final defeat to Croatia because the disappointment is still too painful.

But Southgate has already told the players that he wants to go through a full review of what happened in Russia - including watching the full horror of the Croatia defeat.

England boss Southgate believes there are valuable lessons to be learned - particularly from the second half of the semi-final.

Southgate made the players run through the Iceland defeat in Euro 2016 as one of the first things he did after taking over because it offered valuable pointers to where they went wrong.

While England’s World Cup campaign in Russia was seen as an overwhelming success, the disappointment was in the second half against Croatia.

Southgate believes there are valuable lessons to be learned - particularly from the second half of the semi-final [Courtesy]

Southgate believes they can learn valuable lessons tactically and also mentally and has already spoken to the players in team meetings about needing to improve.

Southgate wants to build on the World Cup campaign and firmly believes the only way to move forward is to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Mirror Sport understands hardly any members of the squad have been able to relive the full 120 minutes of the semi-final.

It was the furthest England had gone in a World Cup since Italia 90 and the disappointment was particularly acute as they blew a first-half lead.

Southgate wants to build on the World Cup campaign and firmly believes the only way to move forward is to learn from the mistakes of the past [Courtesy]

But Southgate has already held a string of team meetings and stressed that he sees the World Cup as an important stepping stone to future success.