I don’t think he’s anywhere near good enough or experienced enough in that role at this level against opponents who are organised and know how to defend
Southgate just seems broken. Regardless of what you think of him, by and large he’s had a couple of ways of playing over his tenure that have gotten the best out of his best players over that time. Largely that’s been Kane but also the supporting cast over the years of Dele, Rashford, Sterling, Saka, Grealish etc. Whether 3 or 4 at the back, he’s made it work. Now he has a group available to him (he hasn’t taken all of them to this Euros though) who could play either of those ways but he’s just not making it work at all. International football isn’t rocket science when you have the players of this England generation. You don’t have to coach the same intricacies and minutiae that the elite club teams do. Mostly, you can’t. You worry about getting your best players into spaces where they do the most damage, and then you worry about covering your weaknesses. Kane is England’s best player. He needs runners in behind and some players around him in midfield who will burst beyond him if he drops and turns. OR he needs elite creativity behind him and players to run the channels and help press. Southgate knows this because the former approach has been the key function of nearly every England squad he’s picked. Why he’s departed from this, I do not know.
I never cease to be amused by the pitch of Walkers voice , hear it on the radio and I think who's this 13yr old talking about England
Totally agree, they have become my favourites for the tournament, if they can learn to hit the back of the net more often! There you go, kiss of death for them....
I saw no evidence of a team last night. This was a collection of individuals all perhaps thinking they were special and didn't need to conform to team ethics. Pickford resorted to booting the ball up field to no one in particular. TAA clearly didn't work, Foden was uninterested, understandibly, of working on the wing. Bellingham was looking to make his own personal impact. Kane was left upfield on his own as if he was Lukako, he's not. Rice looked pissed off and Saka was feeding off scraps. Southgate has had years to sort all this out and is clearly way out of his depth. This is down to the manager as far as I am concerned. Listening to all the comments it's amazing how so many people have no idea how Kane functions. To think of him as a standard number 9 is ridiculous. We need working wingers to work with him. What a mess, all down to the FA picking a 'a nice polite diplomat' instead of a proper manager.
Can you give the kiss of life to England then? Crazy though that De La Fuente’s been in the job for only two years and got them playing like that and yet I’d say from an individual quality perspective I don’t think they have better players than England. Yet here we are, eight years into Southgate’s tenure and we’ve yet to see a single identifiable style of football under his reign in any of the tournaments. Our good results under him have simply come from just having good players capable of going beyond his tactics… or lack of them! I sometimes wonder if I was a really terrible person in a previous life. Because being a Spurs AND England fan is almost a form of capital punishment.
Totally agree, although I would add that as well as looking pissed off, Rice was appalling all night: misplaced passes, half-hearted challenges, wingeing. All the attributes that make him a very good player were absent. Injured maybe? Or just not interested?
I've often thought that Spurs fans are uniquely positioned to understand the national team set up more than most. Illogical decisions, series of poor managers, no clear system, and years of underachievement relative to what exists on paper. The dictionary entry for both sides would be identical.
I'm not sure if it's lack of confidence or perhaps arrogance that is producing these lethargic performances. We seem to have believed our own hype and think we can just turn up and stroll to a win.
For all his qualities, I thought Bellingham was almost as bad yesterday as he was good in the previous match. There was one instance where he decided he had been fouled where he just sat on the deck for a while not doing anything. He eventually got up and ambled around a bit (while the ball was still in frame) before jogging in its general direction.
Could probably switch Rice’s name for about 7 or 8 others to be honest, mate. It’s mental how mediocre so many top players are looking - and have looked - for England. Hojbjerg, for as much as I like him as a player, should never be bossing a midfield against the likes of Foden, Bellingham, Rice and Trent.
