BRYAN ROBSON got criticized heavily for being placed on the left wing by Graham Taylor for England, which led him to retire. Alex Ferguson was pleased with this decision.

It usually starts with the phone call from your mum and dad telling you ‘the country’s not happy’ then you hear the tone of questions in the press conference. Playing for England in a major tournament, it’s rare if you’re not under fire from the media or fans.

That’s the demands of playing for England. Along with Italy, we are probably the most scrutinised and critiqued side in Europe.

I used to say to team-mates. ‘What are you reading the papers for? Why worry yourself? Don’t be dwelling on criticism, that won’t do your confidence any good. Get out and train, enjoy yourself and what you are part of’.

I suppose I was spoilt by my first major tournament, the 1982 World Cup. It went almost perfectly. I scored after 27 seconds against France, we got through the group stage then got knocked out without losing or conceding a goal because of a league system.

The real fun began in Mexico in 1986. We were out of the way at altitude for our camp in Monterrey so we received little news of what was going on back home. But we lost to Portugal, then drew with Morocco and I dislocated my shoulder. 

It was then I got word from my mum and dad what the reaction was like in England. The questioning changed from the press, so you knew what the mood was, but Bobby Robson took it all on his shoulders.

He would say it was on him, then come to the players and say, ‘Just enjoy yourselves lads, you’re at a World Cup’. He took the brunt of the criticism and never once passed on the anxiety that he must have been feeling.

We had a poor tournament at the 1988 European Championship – I’ve never seen Gary Lineker miss so many chances, so that was on him… I’m joking! But Bobby was the same in Italy in 1990 when we didn’t start well. So you want to respond.

You know as a player if you’re not playing well, so you try to work it out. After the first match, we usually only trained one hour a day – there’s a lot of time to kill and the worst thing you can do is dwell on things. Me being captain, I used to go round saying, ‘Take no notice of the papers’.

More or less every day, Don Howe, the coach, would take us to one side and do one-to-one sessions, going over the opposition and how you could improve. You built your confidence back up on that training ground.

The problem for me came in 1991, when Taylor played me on the left wing in a European Championship qualifier against Turkey. I was 34, I had started the season well at Manchester United, I think I was player of the month for August and September.

Sir Alex Ferguson had put young players around me like Ryan Giggs, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince so I was able to let them do the running and I’d intercept, pass, get us moving.

It was working, so I couldn’t understand when Taylor put me wide left. We beat Turkey 1-0 but after the match the reports were all about how I was past it.   

My ‘legs had gone’. I would have been fine if I’d been in my best position but that’s why I retired. The next day I went into Sir Alex’s office and told him I was finished with England, which he was delighted about. I never spoke to Taylor.

I got to see criticism from the coach’s perspective too in the build-up to Euro 96 when I was assistant to Terry Venables.

Our preparation had been excellent in China and Hong Kong when we decided to let the lads out for Paul Gascoigne’s birthday and they ended up in the ‘dentist’s chair’. They’d only been out a few hours but the pictures in the papers told a different story.

Yet Terry used the reaction in the media to bring the group even closer. The camaraderie in that squad was terrific and we knew we had a very good team.

The first game was a dour draw with Switzerland, who, a bit like Denmark now, were well drilled. Alan Shearer had been getting flak, a bit like Harry Kane now, but scored his first England goal for 21 months then finished the tournament as top scorer. 

So there are parallels to draw from which Gareth Southgate, as part of that team then, will be able to impart to his team.

Criticism comes with the England territory, Gareth knows not to listen too much to the reaction. So, when the pint pots are flying and the questions are loaded, pull the group together and trust your gut feeling about what these players can do.