If we're declaring Southgate a failure, then we've only had 1 successful manager in our entire history.
I wouldn’t say he is a failure I would say he has engaged with the media and with the fans, I believe he is a one dimensional manager who imho got quite lucky in the euros, played very well in the semi and should have went for the jugular in the final instead of going jack Ross on us, I would love whoever is in charge to be successful I just can’t see it being Southgate I’m afraid more pressure will be added tomorrow if we get beat of zee Germans at Wembley
Fantastic PR man speaks very well and thoughtfully on the ‘touchy’ subjects great figure head for the FA Just tactically inept and far too negative also now seems stuck in his own ways I’d love to know what the ‘end game’ is if the other night was a step in the right direction if he told us that we could actually judge what he doing thr way he sees it
Well tbh, if he has to get to a semi to keep his job, he is a definite gonner. I'd make that a stellar success in the boiling desert heat, and with a squad short of goals and confidence, though both of these can return quickly. But he has wasted the last few games. Starting Saka at left back when Chillwell is fit again absolutely smacks of shoehorning a player into a team at all costs. Playing Maguire when Stones and Timori who has excelled in Italy is just reaching into the past and hoping it will come back. It won't. And Eric Dier? Really? He is another player who gets a game despite the evidence that this is not his level. I'd say quarters at the max.
Tactically inept? In my opinion that seems an odd statement. The other night against Italy was an event where Southgate was playing with scenarios and tactics ahead of a world cup, against a team who have no world cup to play and therefore the result was the end game for them. Southgate, in my opinion, has proved tactically sound at international level, where many of the games are do or die. He doesnt have the luxury of a 38 game season where a loss is ok. A loss at international level is the end. That is an entirely different tactical proposition and he has proven far better at that than many of the lauded coaches of our past, who had arguably better players. I admit to knowing Southgate a little bit, and I have seem him in action. He is far from inept in my opinion. He is risk averse for the reasons I have outlined above. It is do or die, and one false move can end 4 years of work. I favour the brave coaches more than not, but honestly knock out football is so bloody tense on the touchline. I have coached important knock out games and you come out the other end barely able to think and talk straight. It is incredibly intense. We are ranked 5th in the world as it stands. That is a result of the last several years. I do not believe we have a top 5 squad, probably just top 10, but somehow we punch above our weight a bit. Maybe that is down to Southgate, at least in part.
I wouldn't say he is a failure mind. But he sees have questions to answer. The World Cup will decide his fate. But he has to look at players who are playing well, and not just yhose who have done so in the past. He's done pretty well I'd say, but I don't think he is improving. His decisions during a game are usually wooden, late and often don't make sense. It's that area that separates the best from the rest.
I would suggest the last couple of performances have been all about playing a tempo that suits the heat we might find. Interesting Italy dont have that to prepare for perhaps. I dont think England or Germany have given any credibility to results in this tournament, due to what is coming for both.
No that's fair enough. The games have been squeezed in too. The results are not all important. But it is his recurring selection if certain players, and baffling treatment of some others that bothers me. I just have a feeling he might not like some of the more challenging characters. Vardy , Sancho, Timori and Grealish have all been strangely ignored at various times, when their form has screamed pick me, and they are all known to be independent minded lads. Chilwell not even making the squad the other night was weird to me.
A fit Chilwell is nailed on for that position, but we've seen that he's had plenty of injury problems. Maybe Southgate was trying to figure out what the hell we do if he's injured, given that Shaw has lost his place at Man Utd.
Might be totally wrong but I can’t remember ever seeing him make a change that has had a positive effect in a game that needed it The Euro final was there for the taking and he sat on what they had and if I remember rightly he said he didn’t feel the players on the bench would have had a positive affect? For me he has a system and way of playing that suits him and won’t deviate from that to fit in the players available We have some of the best attacking talent in World Football but can’t fit them into a system where previous International teams have done it in the past He’s picking players out of form and players that aren’t playing football regular and appears to not look at any others If these recent games were an ‘experiment’ into what we have why is the squad and teams picked exactly the same as it has been?
Maybe he was. But picking a lad who mostly plays as a right sided attacking midfielder is not going to solve anything .He could have tried Mitchell from Palace or even Henry from Brentford who is flying now. Maybe Southgate would have done that a couple of years ago. But the team, and squad, is starting to look harder to get out of than it is to get in.
Yes they are. How effective that can be in such big open spaces I dont know. Maybe that is more for fans than players?
