England's Southgate praises Saka and rest of forward line after rout

MANCHESTER, England : After Bukayo Saka struck his first senior career hat-trick in England's 7-0 rout of North Macedonia in Euro 2024 qualifying on Monday his national team manager Gareth Southgate was asked if the 21-year-old is nearing soccer's top echelon.

"He's there," Southgate replied matter-of-factly.

Despite a nagging Achilles injury, Saka shone in England's fourth straight Group C win that has top with 12 points.

"When he broke into the team at Arsenal what struck us was that in a team that were having a difficult time he was performing at a really high level," Southgate said.

"Then when the team were playing well he was still a key player and performing at a really high level.

"So, that says a lot about his mentality, his ability to deal with pressure. And that's the environment that we're in all the time. He's exceptional to work with."

At the end of a long season in which Arsenal finished runners-up to Manchester City in the Premier League, Saka could have sat the game out with the injury, Southgate said.

"To see the joy on his face, he's such a popular member of the team. And so humble, works incredibly hard."

The 21-year-old Saka was joined up front by captain Harry Kane, who scored record-extending 57th and 58th goals for his country, and Marcus Rashford in a forward line fans on social media were calling the best England have had in a while.

Is it a strike force Southgate would like to build around?

"I think for different games, different profiles of players are important, and of course you can never be sure that we're going to have everybody available," he said.

"So that's why nights like tonight, when the team were going well, we said to them at halftime, 'You have to keep enjoying a night like tonight, you have