Gareth Southgate has defended the contribution of Raheem Sterling to England’s World Cup qualifying victory over Malta on Friday night, but the England manager said that he felt the Manchester City man’s half-time substitution was a decision he had to make for the good of the team.

Sterling began the game on the left side of the attacking three behind Harry Kane and missed a chance in the first minute, struggling after that to make an impact in the match. He was replaced by Marcus Rashford at half-time with England switching to a more convincing 4-4-2 formation after the break and eventually scoring four in the second half.

The game follows a week in which Sterling has been suggested as a component part of City’s failed bid for the Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez, despite the 22-year-old having started the season well for his club. Sterling was understood to have been resistant to any attempts to make him part of the Sanchez deal in the final week of the transfer window.

Southgate said that Sterling was “a lad we love” who had taken his half-time substitution “really professionally”.

He said: “He is a player we have a lot of time for. He’s really ballsy. As a creative player, some days everything you do works and some days it doesn’t. It is much harder to be a creative player than a lump like I was. I was just stopping people and that is much easier.

“To go and beat people, and beat people in tight spaces, some days it happens and some days it doesn’t. You could see in the first half, it was the latter for Raheem but he will bounce back from that.

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“I think he is a strong kid. Mentally he is tough and he has bounced back from things throughout his career. I have no doubt in my mind that he will cope with that and he started the season with Manchester City well and is of course at a club where they have an incredible amount of attacking talent but he is right in the mix with them.

“We thought about [leaving Sterling on for the start of the second half] that but we felt it was the best thing to do [to make the change at half-time]. It is always easier with players to give them the extra 10 to 15 minutes but I am paid to make right decisions, not decisions that keep everyone happy.”

The England manager was asked about former captain Wayne Rooney’s drink drive charge but declined to comment in detail. Southgate said: “It’s a difficult moment for him and is family and I don’t think it would be right for me to comment any further because of the impact of that.

“Because of the position I’m in it is going to be more than it should be. It’s sad to read the news but that’s all it’s appropriate to say.”