I’m far from a Gary Lineker fan - he’s a deeply unpleasant human being - but his criticism of Harry Kane was pertinent. HK is too slow, doesn’t put himself about enough, and drops too deep for the ball. That said, he’s scored dozens of goals, so it’s a trade off. It really should be basic coaching to teach a front line & midfield how to press, but several England players admitted after the game that they didn’t understand the tactics. That is solely Southgate’s fault. Too much wobbling his chin worrying about political issues , not enough inate ability as a football coach. Both Sir Bobby Robson & Terry Venables are held in huge esteem by the English because their teams played with a bit of brio & panache - England under Southgate go 1-0 against minor ex Soviet satellite nations, and then drop deep with a 10 man block. I could just about tolerate Southgate’s limitations as a bog standard Championship manager who has been over promoted, if he wasn’t such a wibble-chinned old woman.
If Gareth cannot galvanize England to beat Slovenia and England do not top the group as a result, we deserve to have to face Germany. It was harder to c**k this group up than get it right. England have bottled it yet again. Great for 15 minutes, get a goal - then freeze like a rabbit in the headlights.
Southgate has had a lot of time to galvanise this group of players into a team. But he doesn’t know what he is doing. He has made top players like Bellingham and Foden look distinctly average. Just put round pegs in round holes Gareth. If I can see what is wrong, surely you can Gareth. This is one of the best squad of players England have ever had. But it looks like the team have lost confidence in the Manager. Something is badly wrong.
Any manager who talks about the routine task of dropping a player as “heartbreaking“ and a “tragedy” that requires a psychologist to be on hand is nothing more than a fraud. I’ve long thought that Southgate wibble-wibbles around the players to disguise his complete lack of managerial ability - we saw that again last night. I don’t remember Sir Alf Ramsay referring to leaving Jimmy Greaves out in 1966 as “heartbreaking “ ? Another classic Southgate-ism post match last night was to make himself the victim- multiple references to what he calls the “external noise” he’s now going to suffer. Mr Wibble Wibble actually means receiving justified criticism from fans & the media . “External noise” - another meaningless phrase he’s picked up on a UEFA course.
Sounds like he's cracking up under the pressure. Whoever his assistant is should take over for the rest of the tournament. (I know it won't happen).
Once again VAR exposed as not fit for purpose. From every angle and at any speed that was a blatant dive. The motion as he went down was totally unnatural. Yet Austria get and score the penalty.
I totally agree. He left his foot in. It is not a penalty but you see it so often. It looked a clear and obvious error to me.
I am not a fan of VAR in England, but the speed & effectiveness of the offside decisions in the Euros have been very good.
Best pundit so far - Cesc Fabregas. Thomas Frank is also a very interesting & insightful tactician. Worst pundit - Rio Ferdinand (an incoherent moron) and Karen Carney (only on there to tick boxes).
I haven’t watched much of the Euros. But other teams I have seen, apart from Scotland, all seem better than England. As things stand we stand no chance of winning the Competition.
Adebayor was funny. The other panellists were all trying to hide the fact that they couldn't make out what he was saying.
