ANTHONY GORDON is relishing his central role with England Under-21s this summer – and claims playing as a number nine might be his best position.

Gordon has been one of England’s star performers in the European Under-21s Championships in Georgia and Russia, with his first-half strike against Portugal on Sunday night securing the 1-0 victory that set up a semi-final against Israel on Wednesday.

Whereas the 22-year-old has spent his Newcastle United career so far playing as either a winger or a wide midfielder, England boss Lee Carsley has been fielding him as a forward at the Euros.

He lined up alongside fellow forward Morgan Gibbs-White on Sunday, with the pair combining for England’s winner, and feels he is benefiting from the positional switch.

It remains to be seen whether Eddie Howe will consider him for an attacking role with Newcastle next season, but Gordon clearly feels that playing through the middle plays to his strengths.

“It’s very different,” said Gordon, who also scored in England’s group-stage win over Israel. “Obviously, I haven’t played there many times so it doesn’t come naturally. I’m seeing a lot of the game in front of me, which is helping me a bit. I’m playing off Morgs (Gibbs-White), which is quite easy because he moves a lot.

“I’m getting a better understanding of football playing in different positions, a number eight on the wings for Newcastle and now as a number nine.

“To be honest, I feel like it may be my best position because I think I’m better running off people. You can see where Morgs gets the ball and I’m spinning, I can use my pace a bit more. You can get a bit isolated on the wing, drifting in and out of games.”

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Whereas England had cruised through the group stage, winning all three of their games, they had to dig deep against Portugal in the quarter-finals.

Gordon missed a couple of opportunities to extend his side’s lead, with Portugal hitting the crossbar through Henrique Araujo in the closing stages.

“You’re going to get chances, and it’s up to me to finish them,” said the youngster, who joined Newcastle from Everton in January. “I probably should have had one or two more, which I’m a bit gutted about.

“I’m extremely tired, but happy for the win, happy for the character we showed as a team, the way we dug in. We’ve had a lot of top performances so far in this tournament, and this was a completely different challenge, a completely different game where they had a lot of the ball but we came through it and dug in as a team.

“We haven’t had that test, we haven’t had that opportunity to show we’ve got that side to our game, but we definitely proved ourselves in that.”