You hear all the time, the 'easy' side of the draw etc. I don't know how the FIFA rankings are decided these days. Last time I checked it had something to do with performances over the previous three tournaments. This is irrelevant. Of course the bigger nations will be more successful over time. What I'm saying is that in any given individual tournament, you'll get a bunch of big nations underperforming, and a bunch of smaller ones overperforming. Would you rather be playing Switzerland or Italy in the next round, based on performances in this tournament?
I feel like you’re just making excuses for mediocrity. We have some of the best players in Europe. They should be able to perform to a higher level than worse players, if coached and managed correctly. As loading correctly said, the big nations win far more tournaments because they have the players and the resources. Also success leaves clues and experience. The England team has underperformed for decades on the world stage and it needs to be addressed. We have one of the strongest squads in the world in every position. Why can’t we be as organised as Switzerland for example? That is southgates job. Of course, it will never be easy, there are always outliers and poor results. Even pep’s Barcelona lost a few games. But we have to put ourselves in the conversation as one of the worlds best teams and Southgate isn’t able to do that.
Going back to our original point, how many of the teams we have beaten in the knockout phases can we say were superbly well-drilled machines? In the history of football I would take Switzerland all day. This tournament, I would absolutely take Italy. Like when we beat Germany last time out- they were awful. That happens. But that doesn’t mean the bigger sides won’t be dominant most of the time.
Again, you're making it seem like Southgate is our first underperforming manager, when actually he's been more successful than all the previous lot. No one knows why we always do badly. At least I'm putting forward theories. You're offering nothing but 'It's Southgate'. How do you explain the previous 50 years or so?
If you want my serious answer, I will give the one a senior FA coach gave me once. For decades we were let down by ‘the English way’. Blood and guts. Small kids ignored in favour of early bloomers. Poor training surfaces. The physical preferred to the technical. Then after 2010 the FA finally said English football was doomed if we didn’t change. Vast investment has gone into coaching and training facilities. Our approach has changed to focusing on the development of individual skills and we no longer teach pass the ball. Now it is love the ball. We are seeing the rewards of this in our successes in underage groups. Players like Mainoo have been under this setup since they were 6 years old. So, the reason we have not won is that our culture was wrong.
Yeah it’s clear as day that this is the best pool of players England have had in 30+ years (my lifetime) people reminisce about 2002 or whenever that golden generation was but this squad is far better, people just didn’t have as much of a clue in 2002
Germany were only 'awful' because it fits the narrative. They beat Portugal 4-2 in the group stage. So they can't have been that bad. From your list, I'd say they are all well-drilled teams. Ukraine probably the weakest.
And the other European countries aren’t as strong as they often are. It’s a golden opportunity for us, as was the last World Cup and the previous Euros. It’s being squandered by a poor manager.
Yep sounds good to me. Definitely part of the reason, but not the only reason. And what about when other big nations? Why have Germany been so bad since 2016? Belgium's golden generation? England have failed to win a tournament because of penalty shoot outs more than anything. If we'd beaten Italy in Euro 20, or say, Portugal in Euro 04, Germany 96,the whole story would be different.
The German squad hasn’t been up to much for a while, but now in Nagelsmann they have a manager that can make a difference. Belgium’s golden generation is a relative term. Golden for them, but not all that. But yes, they’ve underperformed a bit, but then they had Martinez managing them, who is also crap.
That is a national mentality issue. We are too humble. Germans are arrogant. It is in the DNA. Germany has had issues with a lack of talent. Some Germans blame Pep, by the way, for instilling the short passing philosophy at Bayern - which goes against the national footballing DNA. Until this year Bayern has always been seen as the nation’s team (well in Bavaria anyway). The fact Bayern have competition right now has reinvigorated the national team. Maybe Pep is the issue here!
Obviously it varies over the years - sometimes the players aren’t good enough. Sometimes the manager isn’t good enough. Sometimes it can be pure bad luck. Football at the top level can be a coin flip. But the best teams will beat the teams that are worse than them on paper more often than not. Southgate has got us to the level below the top imo. He has us beating the easy teams, but isn’t quite astute enough to turn us into one of the best. His decision making and squad selection is poor - this Euros especially. I don’t see how anyone could watch last nights game and conclude he’s a good manager. We won in spite of him; not because of him.
