There are things much worse than losing a final to the Competitions best Team. And to hose who do not like Southgate, I would say, 'be careful what you wish for'. He is, by far, England's most sucessful Manager since Ramsey. Look at those Teams that failed to get past the knock out stages. I suspect that their fans would have been very pleased to change places with England, irespective of the type of football. And while I too have strong reservations about some selections, I'm only a Fan and my experience is as a long time observer. This does not, and can not, match up to a professional who is on the spot, and knows the players. So, from ME, it is a case of Thank You Mr Southgate, you gave us a long run at this Cometition, with up's and downs and a bit of real excitement.
Time for him to go. History has proven we will win nothing with him at the helm. Doesn't have the balls.
I remember not even qualifying for tournaments in the past and at times being utterly embarrassed in them. Southgate has done a good job, could have been a brilliant job had he been able to take advantage of home advantage and a poor Italy team last time out at the euros and had got past Croatia in the World Cup. the bloke has only just fallen short, it’s frustrating, but he should be rightly proud of his record. let’s who the next fella is and how he does
He’s still won nothing though so it’s irrelevant, he won’t be looked back on as a successful manager. He turned us into a team that go further in competitions but with a better manager we’d have won one of the last two euros finals imo.
Looked like a 5 at the back with Shaw and Saka as wing backs for the most part? I hate the back 3/5 personally not gonna lie especially with this England team, too many defensive players on the pitch because he chooses to play 2 central midfielders in Rice and Mainoo that have no creativity about them whatsoever. Spain might as well have another player on the pitch when they’ve got Rodri doing the job of both Rice and Mainoo. If we went a traditional back 4 with Rice and Bellingham in the middle, Foden as the 10 then Saka and another wide with Kane up top you’ve got enough bodies to compete in midfield and actually hold onto the ball and make for a meaningful attack when you win it back. Instead we had everyone bar Kane, Bellingham and Foden parked on the edge of our own box inviting them on
Southgate has had the perfect storm of 1) Suddenly having real quality players at his disposal. 2) A kind run of fixtures (Take a look at who we have played, drawn with and beaten, mostly unconvincingly, in the last 3 tournaments). 3) The usual top teams and favorites have not been as dominating and unbeatable as they have been in the past. The last 3 tournaments have probably been the best chance we will ever have of winning something. If we had a top manager, even a mid table Premier League one, we may have stood a better chance, or at least entertained a lot more. He should have gone after the world cup. Its time to give somebody else a crack.
Harry Kane was undoubtedly the most disappointing English player in the tournament, and we should perhaps have known . . . . I understand that he's played in 5 finals (2 for England and 3 for 'Spurs) and hasn't scored or assisted in any of them. He's a great goal scorer, but he doesn't appear to be a big game player
My question is what is England's style or identity under Southgate. We could see Spain's system or identity - it was quick, high press, fluid attacking where everyone knew what they were supposed to do both in defence or on attack. England had a half hearted press, were generally pretty slow in possession, bizarrely relying on a long ball that Kane never won. In this tournament we were effectively a collection of individuals whereas Spain were a team. And we played most of the games with a disjointed left side. We impressed in one half of footballl againts Holland and that was it. I know the stats, I know England have reached more finals under Southgate etc. but equally England have never beaten a 'top team' under Southgate. Whenever we come up against a decent side we are found wanting (I know we beat Germany in the last Euros but they were at their lowest ebb). This years draw and route to the final must have been the easiest draw ever. The two words that come to mind when looking at Southgate's team are cautious and defensive. We have amazing attacking talents, like Spain, but it appears that Southgate doesn't know how to use them. It won't happen but I would love to appoint Klopp - under him I think we may get a footballing identity.
Yet still statistically the best manager England have had. Its very, very difficult to win these tournaments and difficult to go far in them. Southgate has consistently achieved relative success and should be applauded but all he gets is stick. Don't get it but that's the society we live in. Always have to find someone to blame.
Be cautious and solid while hoping for a piece of individual brilliance without really doing much to facilitate it. We won't get Klopp but I can't think of many I would like more than him.
****e? Although many would argue he didn’t have a squad nearly as capable as what ours is currently in comparison to the other bigger nations.
Spain have an identity because of the way they are coached as kids and the climate they play football in. All their clubs play football the same way and it's ingrained in them. If you think a manager comes in for a couple of weeks and does all that then you are mad. England are starting to produce top, elite footballers and are going deep into tournaments. The next step is trying to win it.
Very bizzare, def right to go to a back 4 but go and put a natural winger on rather than shoehorning the big names into the team
Bloody Southgate should have just done that other thing that would have won us the tournament easily! Simplistic to lay it all down at his feet. There's a whole ecosystem around England that sets us up to fail in these big moments - against a team that we should remember was really very good indeed. Southgate bears responsibility of course. He made errors in his squad selection for sure. Both Grealish and Rashford would have been far more useful than Gordon. His hesitance in putting new players in through qualifying and friendlies left him unsure of their talents in the big moments. He prioritised getting our big players out there over coherence. He defaults to his trusted players whenever it's tough. However, I don't think people are sufficiently appreciative of the nature of the task. You only have to look at most of the fairly facile comments in online discourse to see he's on a hiding to nothing in many respects. He should just have put an attacking system together that would have unlocked the undoubted attacking potential of Kane, Bellingham, Foden, Saka, Palmer, Watkins, Gordon and Toney. It was as simple as that, apparently! Truth is England has produced a lot of very talented players who all like to play in the same space. And the fanbase - and the media - are completely unforgiving of dropping these big reputation players in favour of a coherent system, right up to the point that they aren't. Kane discourse for instance has pretty much flipped from 'he's the reason we're gonna win - best striker in the world' to 'he should be dropped immediately' within the space of 7 (plodding, ineffective) outings. Even now, the fact that Southgate couldn't 'find a system' to get Kane working is a mark against him rather than looking deeper and seeing that it's almost a commentary about all of us. We probably do need to reset. The biggest enemy in football is time. Time is what allows grudges and deeply held biases to take root so that a handful of bad moments override years of patient solid work. Just ask Speakman about that. And to be fair, it's true that a fresh voice can be reinvigorating at times. But the things that we need to do (move us away from having a designated England captain, move on stalwarts like Kane, stop playing our best players and start playing a system) will remain incredibly tough to do while the fans and the media continue to be the way we are. Ultimately, just as it is at SAFC, fan reaction is almost entirely governed by outcome. Good work instantly becomes bad work if we lose a tight game in a knockout tie. But hopefully - and hopefully like with SAFC - the more times you put yourself in the conversation, the more likely you'll eventually win one. This past 3 years isn't the only chance. They're just the most recent.
I don't think it was that bizarre. Truth is Bellingham hasn't been at it all tournament, but you simply have to have him on the pitch for the moments he can produce. Foden has improved throughout - and looked so much better centrally. With Shaw back in the team you've got the balance on the left. It then makes some sense to have the goal threat of Bellingham as the right footed player cutting in.
Tell ya what mind, for the world's best player (supposedly) Bellingham has been absolutely lifting this tournament.
