England's Interim Coach Lee Carsley Calls for World Class Manager Following Impressive Victory over Finland in Nations League

Following England's surprising 2-1 loss to Greece at Wembley, Carsley was determined to secure a victory in the Nations League match in Helsinki to avoid another setback.

Carsley had been heavily criticised for playing five attacking midfielders and no recognised striker against Greece and he selected a more conventional line-up this time.

England were still far from impressive for long periods, but they mustered enough quality to grind out a third win in four games since Carsley replaced Gareth Southgate.

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Jack Grealish opened the scoring in the first half and Trent Alexander-Arnold's superb free-kick doubled the lead after the interval before Declan Rice's tap-in wrapped up the points.

It was another day of mixed messages both on and off the pitch for England as the Football Association (FA) take their time hiring a permanent successor to Southgate, who quit after the Euro 2024 final loss to Spain.

Carsley had woken to reports on Sunday that the FA are in talks with former Bayern Munich and Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.

And the former Everton midfielder, who had been working as England Under-21 coach before stepping up, appeared to distance himself from the job during a post-match television interview.

"My remit was six games and I'm happy with that. This is a privileged position," Carsley said. "People are always going to try and put their chips on one side. I'm in the middle. My bosses have made it clear what they need from me.

"This job deserves a world class coach who has won trophies and I am still on the path to that."

It was the second time in a week that Carsley had been curiously coy about declaring his interest in the job.

But he backtracked a little in a separate media briefing when pressed on whether he was ruling himself out of the permanent position.

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