I won't die on a 'Southgate is a tactical genius' hill - because I don't believe it - but in terms of what he got right tactically, generally his substitutions worked, particularly in the win against the Netherlands and his decision to sub on successful penalty takers against Switzerland. In terms of team shape, tactics, and decisions to start players - Southgate generally got more wrong than right. For every good decision he made (starting Guehi, moving to a 3-5-2 in latter stages) he made more bad ones (persisting with out of form players like Kane, delayed decision making for substitutions, not really having a Plan A that worked well or a Plan B). And although we rode our luck at times and never really convinced, we end up playing in a major international tournament final (only the third major international tournament final in our history, two of which under Southgate's management). If you're judging managers purely on results, a runners up medal in EURO 2024 is probably par for the course. If you're judging on performances, we didn't look like a good, cohesive team all tournament with the exception of several individual moments of brilliance. Defensively, I think Southgate was dealt a bad hand. We lack a good English left-back - not enough coming through and the key players (Shaw, Chilwell) all injured. Who would you have taken and started there? The options are so limited there's a chance for Leif Davis to stake a claim, if he has a good Premier League season. We lack of depth and quality in central defence (compare our centre back options now to the England teams in the previous two decades). Stones - a bit-part player for Man City lately - and a collection of centre-backs from mid-table Premier League clubs. We lack a central midfielder capable of controlling games like Spain have with Rodri, Luiz, Gavi etc. I don't think Rice is as good as people make out and the likes of Mainoo and Wharton need a few more years to develop. Attacking wise, he had the best set of players in his tenure and he used them poorly. Crowbarring Bellingham, Foden, and Kane in one team didn't work all tournament. He fell into the trap that the likes of Sven and England managers did throughout the 2000s and early 2010s by fielding a team of strong, world-class individuals that ultimately couldn't play like a team. If you're making Foden your central point in attacking midfield, move Bellingham back and start pacey, quick wide players like Saka, Palmer, and Gordon. If you're starting Kane, you need a midfield behind him willing to do the hard yards and running. I don't think any sane person could look at Southgate's tenure and call it a failure. Far from it. Hopefully, he'll ultimately be viewed as a 'bridge' manager that overhauled the national team and got us experience winning knock out games and reaching major finals. But ultimately, it'll be the next manager (fingers crossed) that builds on this good work and is capable of finally winning a tournament and does so by playing a style of football that is exciting to watch.
The thing that impressed me the most about Southgate in this tournament - exactly as McKenna would have done - when we had a rough time and Gary Neville was suggesting a massive overhaul he didn’t panic and make wholesale changes, and that’s how we got to the final. Unfortunately, the underlying message, that results were more important than performances, was wrong - and that’s why players froze and why everyone looked traumatised and angry instead of upset at the full time whistle yesterday. It could easily have gone the other way though, if Spain hadn’t scored so quickly second half, we might’ve put in a second half performance.
I can’t see any manager building on this. It’s not obvious who will take the job on. We will probably take a step backward now. I can see Davis getting a call up this season.
If it’s an English manager then Potter or Howe are the only real options. I think both are better tacticians than Southgate - particularly Potter. Both of them easily have better club management records than Southgate. You’d like to think Potter in particular would get us playing a style of football that is attractive and prioritises teamwork. My question is whether either of those candidates can handle the pressure and levels of expectation. Potter struggled at a high profile club like Chelsea, although they are a basket case, and couldn’t manage the egos involved. Southgate has managed to do this, as well as build a culture where players enjoyed playing for England. I’d personally try everything to get Klopp in as manager. He’s probably eyeing the German national team job, but he knows English football and, at the back of his mind, all he knows is he’s got to win a tournament to become a legend. Easier said than done.
Well, have to say I don't give a **** as wanted Spain to win BUT Southgate is a bloody poor manager. With that squad, England should be winning the tournament, no question!!! With the attacking players, they should have destroyed a very poor Spain defence but it was all too slow and negative, which it has been all tournament!! Just so pleased to see Yamal shine this tournament and now praying that Nico Williams signs for Barça, which I think will happen!! With Gavi soon back from injury, Balde back from injury, Spain and Barça are only going to get stronger and hopefully I will have many more nights like last night!
Both Spanish player Alcaraz and footie team deserved to win. A changing of the guard at Wimbledon and prob new England management needed.
Alcaraz absolutely dismantled Djokovic, who might have been affected by recent knee surgery and a forgiving run to the final. Seems like it's Alcaraz and Sinner (who looked impressive winning this year's Australian Open) who are the new present and foreseeable future of men's tennis.
I think Southgate has done an outstanding job, a semi-final, 2 finals and a quarter finals. No England manager has a record like that. Apart from the Southgate era all I remember of England is failure and poor performances. And whilst we've got 3 of the best players in the world I don't think this squad is as good as people say, certainly not near the so called golden generation. In defence we lack options as we do in midfield the quality and depth just aren't there. Then we have Kane, Bellingham and Foden all whom are outstanding players but all like to play in similar spaces and need runners around them. Is similar to the Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard argument we try to shoehorn all 3 players in but lack any balance and coherence on the pitch because of it. That is a criticism of Southgate but that means bringing in players of lesser quality to give us better balance and the names on the team sheet don't look as strong. It's not like the golden generation when the compromise to the Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes problem would've been to bring in a Carrick or Hargreaves both superb players. I do think in this case Southgate got it wrong in terms of balance but the players who would be brought in aren't of the same quality/consistency and hence why I didn't buy the whole this is the new golden generation. The squad is unbalanced, it lacks width and pace uptop. Again some of this can be levelled at Southgate because he could've chosen a more balanced squad with more of those characteristic but those players who would've brought more balance aren't necessarily of the same quality/consistency. In terms of performance, generally under Southgate we've performed well maybe a little cautious but in comparison to the football we've player under other managers it's been a level above, that is apart from this tournament where it really reminds me of watching the golden generation, so many good players looking like they can't do the basics but we still managed to get to a final. The level of criticism towards Southgate I feel is unfair and when he leaves he should be celebrated for his achievements. Tactically there is some fair points but you could argue he got the majority right in this tournament with his tactical changes positively impacting the games. Performance wise we could've been a lot better in this tournament and I do think performance is important but we weren't far away from winning the thing and that was above my expectations given the limitations of the squad.
