Lee Carsley stands by tactics as England boss vows not to change despite Greece loss

Lee Carsley will not be telling his England team to play any differently despite acknowledging the need for improvement after their unexpected defeat to Greece.

Following in Gareth Southgate's footsteps, Carsley enjoyed a strong start as interim manager with consecutive 2-0 wins against the Republic of Ireland and Finland, yet the excitement dissipated at Wembley after a sobering loss to Greece.

England commenced their Nations League match against Greece with high hopes only to exit the field to jeers from the home crowd after Vangelis Pavlidis sealed a well-deserved 2-1 win in the final moments.

Scrutiny fell on Carsley's tactical gamble of using five forward players without a traditional striker. But he said post-match: "The way I want my teams to play, I want us to attack.

"And when we had the players we have available, I wanted to try something different. Hindsight is perfect because it never happened. It wouldn't stop me trying something different in the future because I have done OK being like this.

"I had 17, 18, 19 years as a player being defensive and just sitting in there and playing on the counter-attack. That is definitely not how I want to coach. Nothing changes in that respect."

England now trail Group B2 leaders Greece by three points, setting up a crucial November double-header after concluding this month's fixtures with an important match against a struggling Finland side.

Carsley, looking ahead to Sunday, asserted: "I have had enough setbacks in football to know you are never too far away and I have got to lead by example, and I will.

"My belief in this team hasn't changed. We need to be better, and I include myself in that definitely. We tried something tonight, it didn't come off. It could have gone the other way and we are talking about 'we've found another way of playing'.

"I'm really wary about ruling something out so quickly when we have literally done it for an hour. If any fingers get pointed, they're at me, I wanted to try something, it didn't come off, but we go again."

Despite the confusion on Thursday, Carsley still sees "there is definitely some potential" in fielding Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer together in future games.

However, with captain Harry Kane eager to return to the starting line-up after an injury, Carsley hinted at a more cautious approach in the upcoming game at Helsinki Olympic Stadium, adding: "Probably won't try that again on Sunday.

"I have coached enough to know we need to do something different. Had Harry been fit I might have gone down another route."

Jack Grealish could be in contention for a spot against Finland having missed out on the previous game, which affected Carsley's prospects of securing the England managerial role permanently.

Crrently the interim manager, the coach deftly avoided queries on his desire to take on the position full-time, intriguingly noting he will "hopefully" resume his duties with the England Under-21s following the November games.

"I know it is a boring answer but nothing changes in my respect," he said. "The remit was to do the three camps and nothing has changed. I know it went so well in the last camp, we have had a disappointing night tonight but I don't get too high or too low."

"I have definitely not felt that (it's mine to lose). I have tried to be as clear as I can in terms of what I am here to do. I have done this interim role (at) three places and tried to be up front as I can. I am old enough to know it is a game of football."

"We have lost a game of football, we are forgetting that Greece were OK, they weren't here just to lie down. Never too high, never too low."