Listening to the interview with Southgate after the game, I suspect some may get their wish. He sounded like he may not be in charge for next year's world cup to me. Maybe just disappointed I suppose.
I watched the text reports coming in every couple of minutes from DailyMail online and the BBC. Couldn't watch anymore when it got to the shootout. Went off to work and the client came outside with a made up England shirt. I was just about to get excited when she displayed a very glum face. Dam l was p1ssed from that moment onwards. Feel sorry for you guys over there. Dam!
Gutted, especially after such a strong start. Italians deserved it by the end though. It's easier to take it when it's broadly deserved. As others have rightly said, we needed to keeping going for more to kill the game off. Really hope we start to see more of Sancho and Foden now though.
For my two pence worth The pens were ####. Actually embarrassing. When the commentator says “so much pressure on young shoulders” you sort of think why are they taking them then? Their misses will again scare them. Same old England. We never learn. Thought we really should have capitalised in the first half as we were all over them. That change by them caused us big problems and they dominated the 2nd half. It amazes me that we saved 2 out of 5 pens and still lost? That stupid run up by our boys should be banned as it was embarrassing. Best chance we have had and we blew it. Anyway congrats to Italy.
We were at home at the home of football. And we were 1-0 up in under two minutes. The Italians were rattled for thirty minutes. We had an attacking generation of players at our behest but we, and by we, I mean, Southgate thought it was a good idea to sit back and try to defend a 1-0 lead. It was uncomfortable and took us back to all previous tournaments when we've been in a positive position. and the Italians came on top and the equaliser was inevitable. The negative tactics were unforgivable. We should've taken the game to them. I'd have rather lost that 3-2 in open play than go out that way. Southgate has let down the nation. He was far too cautious and negative. It was similar to the Croatia game in 2018, Southgate was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Clueless.
I thought he had been offered the job to beyond the next WC? He did what he thought would bring success and it very nearly worked. Some of us thought we had the players to do things differently, but he made the calls and was so close. I hope he now sets the team up a bit more aggressively, but, for this tournament my only real criticism is the selection of penalty takers, which just seemed odd, whatever had happened in practice. We lost the initiative for large chunks of this game, but you can also argue that Italy gained it, at the top level it’s never all one way traffic. One of my Italian mates just texted me with the comment ‘what intensity’, which I think is a great description of the game. But we go again, as always. And ‘sixty years of hurt’ scans better than ‘fifty five’.
You've got to set the players up on the front foot, Southgate set us up on the back foot. **** tactics. We made the game comfortable for the Italians. Let the handbrake off for ****s sake. Get them on the backfoot, we had the players to do it. I'm pissed off with Southgate. **** game management.
Southgate is a good man and he's created a fine spirit in his squad, but his instinctive negativity has let us all down in the end. I hope he stays on and learns from this experience, though. We have an exciting group of players that can certainly win tournaments if the shackles are taken off.
Southgate isn't a good man. He's far too negative. He had a great opportunity and he blew it. He's a c**t!
I've said throughout this tournament that fear of losing was ridiculous with the attacking talent we have at our disposal. The best generation of players we've ever produced have been let down by a manager who lacks the vision to play to our strengths but would rather play ultra defensive uninspired keep-ball. Two tournaments where the draw couldn't have been kinder have been squandered by such negative tactics. He's signed up for the next two years so I fear it'll be more of the same...
After tonight, I'd get rid of him. Maybe give Pep or Jurgen a go. ( Pay them the big bucks. ) I can't think of many English managers who qualify for the job. .
He is a good man. You can argue he’s not up to it tactically but his decisions throughout the tournament until half-time tonight suggest otherwise. He’s played a huge role in restoring some pride in this team and helped at least temporarily to heal a ****show of a divided nation. The bloke is a real leader and has a huge amount of integrity.
He got everything wrong in my opinion after thirty minutes. It was no different to when we played Croatia three years ago. He was clueless.
When it gets to penalties you can only blame the penalty takers Just hit the ****ing ball Stop with the nonsense Smash the ball
World cup semi-final 3rd in the Nations league Euro's finalists and only beaten on penalties. Apart from Sir Alf Ramsey no manager in our history has achieved so much managing the England team. There's only one person looking clueless on here and it isn't Southgate...
Wheres the hatred for Southgate coming from? He was a hero only a day ago and gaining praise everywhere. I honestly dont believe he instructed our players to sit on a 1-0 lead. This wasnt the Ukraine we were playing against FFS. It was a team unbeaten in 30 plus games! The reason we were on the back foot after starting so brightly was due to the standard of the oppossition. Hindsight is priceless in many walks of life and some could argue that we should have brought some of our attacking talent on to try score the 2nd, some will argue thats pointless when you cant even get the ball to start with. Someone (i think Col) hit the nail on the head. It was in midfield we got overun, much more often when Rice went off. It was no surprise to see Phillips coverage statistics. Mancini recognised this and Italy had no option but to push on. Sometimes, as we witness at club football, the team winning gets pinned back as the chasing team looks to equalise. If that chasing team is of a high standard then you end up dropping deeper and deeper.