Gareth Southgate

[Ohrodneyrodney]

Deserves credit but felt that he was shithouse for regularly hooking Sterling, rather than others, as he knew he wouldn't get stick for it.

Yep. Took the easy option which gave the team no help at all.

 

[Macca Two]

Very very poor tonight. Midfield was anonymous and his solution was swapping the dangerous Sterling for the bang average Rashford. Made absolutely no sense whatsoever when he needed to get some legs and energy into the midfield. Suppose he got a decent run from a decent group of players though so about what you would expect.

Absolutely right. Got the best out of an average set of players. Southgate let himself down today though as Subs were nothing, Rashford for Sterling & Dier for Henderson, both a complete waste! Needed to get Delph on for Ali, Rose for Young should have happened much earlier.

 

[fredmont]

Not convinced they were fat Sam tactics as much as the midfield just didn’t have the quality to retain the ball and even less quality setting up chances for the forward players

Well all I saw from the time we scored was the ball lumped forward in the general direction of lone striker Sterling , totally bypassing the midfield. On the few occasions it got near Raz he won a free kick, much to his credit, as when he did get the ball there wasn't a white shirt in sight. Raz was the last person he should have substituted. Anyway, it's over , though no doubt the interruption to the Prem season will be plenty as England now strive for he Euros.

 

[BigOscar]

I rate whoever was in charge of designing set pieces, they did a top notch job. Southgate on the other hand is just a nice guy, I don't see much about how we played in open play in the tournament to suggest he's much of a manager. Seemed incapable of either noticing the problem in midfield, or unwilling to make the decision to change it.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Absolutely right. Got the best out of an average set of players. Southgate let himself down today though as Subs were nothing, Rashford for Sterling & Dier for Henderson, both a complete waste! Needed to get Delph on for Ali, Rose for Young should have happened much earlier.

Pretty much agree. Henderson did OK till he ran out of gas. Need a midfield for the next tournament.
Young, Dier, Ali, Lingard not good enough. I'd ditch Vardy too and probably Rashford unless he improves dramatically.

 

[hilts]

Southgate played much of his career in a back 3 from memory so he’s just doing what he knows and trusts best. He has got another crack at it and hopefully like some of the players will improve next time around.

 

[OntarioBlue]

I am genuinely conflicted about this. He seems like a very likeable guy, he is very comfortable in front of the the cameras and makes all the right noises. However, I think some of his selections in this World Cup have been terrible and his unwillingness to change the lineup and format were almost beyond comprehension. Firstly, Young and Dele Alli had terrible world cups yet played in almost every, if not every game. Secondly, it was clear to everyone that the midfield trio of Henderson, Alli and Lingard simply wasn’t working but he persisted with it. Thirdly, apart from a few penalties, Harry Kane was really poor yet he was untouchable. When underperforming players needed to be changed The Manager seemed unwilling to make the big decisions.

Having said all that I think we did better than most people expected and there were some genuine highlights . Pickford did well, Stones and Maguire were excellent and Trippier had a good tournament.

We may just have the foundations of a decent team for the future.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Predictable and naive .

 

[blueballs84]

Great credit for taking England this far and creating a sense of unity and common purpose in the squad.
This England team is only going to get stronger over the next 4 years. He needs to work on his in-game management and a plan B. This wasn't the first time when England dominated the first half, the opposition made some tactical changes at half time and England wasn't really able to deal with it. See Nigeria friendly before the world cup.

 

[TCIB]

Great credit for taking England this far and creating a sense of unity and common purpose in the squad.
This England team is only going to get stronger over the next 4 years. He needs to work on his in-game management and a plan B. This wasn't the first time when England dominated the first half, the opposition made some tactical changes at half time and England wasn't really able to deal with it. See Nigeria friendly before the world cup.

Agree with all of that. I would add Alli, Lingard and Hendersons spots seem most vulnerable. These fellas leave us with what seems to be no actual midfield and solid midfields win you international tournaments. If it is not addressed, we will stagnate.

All in all though we did well i thought given the squad we had. Southgate deserves praise.

 

[Bluekiwi]

Havs anyone seen the item on the MuEN web site ? The Rags have found their Iniesta in Lingard - really!!!

 

[dickie davies]

There was an article before the world cup where Southgate was asked "what happens if the back three system isn't working! Will you change it to a back four?" His reply was along the lines of the back three is the answer to all the problems and we make it works no matter what

With regards to England not having a talented squad, then surely we should play a system that gets the best from the players we do have, rather than shoehorning them into an unfamiliar one where our better players are weakened

Walker is one of the world's best right backs and played at centre half
Sterling is far more dynamic and a real threat when coming in from wide positions yet was played in a David Silva position

England should have set up like a downmarket City
Starting with a back four with Delph at left back who moves into midfield to create the extra man when we are in posession
Henderson the screen
Rashford and Sterling wide
Kane up front
Ali has been shite this season so Loftus Cheek should have been in with then a toss up between Wellshit and Lingard

Frighten the opposition with electric pace out wide and control the midfield

 

[lonestay]

If Southgate wants to play like a mini City then he has to play the city players in their club positions to start with. Then comes the tricky bit, finding players from other clubs that don't play that system week in week out to suddenly be able to do so . Southgate himself
Played it to safe his subs were predictable, time and player wise . To play a possession game and play out from the back is going to be difficult for England simply because the majority of the clubs that will provide the players do not play that way .

 

[the god Gerry Gow]

Truly abysmal performance though on a bright note we did add hoofing the ball to nobody every 30 seconds to our list of achievements.
Apparently Henderson played as I saw him being substituted.
Kane, Lingard and Alli were so poor I don’t think it is possible to play worse.
Did any midfielder actually get a single tackle in.

 

[Pigeonho]

Put Foden in that team in 4 years time. Stick with the manager. Some national pride has been restored.

 

[Indaparkside]

Put Foden in that team in 4 years time. Stick with the manager. Some national pride has been restored.

Get big fat Sam back :)

 

[BerkshireBlue]

There was an article before the world cup where Southgate was asked "what happens if the back three system isn't working! Will you change it to a back four?" His reply was along the lines of the back three is the answer to all the problems and we make it works no matter what

With regards to England not having a talented squad, then surely we should play a system that gets the best from the players we do have, rather than shoehorning them into an unfamiliar one where our better players are weakened

Walker is one of the world's best right backs and played at centre half
Sterling is far more dynamic and a real threat when coming in from wide positions yet was played in a David Silva position

England should have set up like a downmarket City
Starting with a back four with Delph at left back who moves into midfield to create the extra man when we are in posession
Henderson the screen
Rashford and Sterling wide
Kane up front
Ali has been shite this season so Loftus Cheek should have been in with then a toss up between Wellshit and Lingard

Frighten the opposition with electric pace out wide and control the midfield

completely agree. The walker at cb was always going to back fire. Why wouldnt you pick 3 of the back 4 players that have the best defence in the league is questionable. Croatia targetted Young because hes shit and it worked

 

[jaiguruKun]

There was an article before the world cup where Southgate was asked "what happens if the back three system isn't working! Will you change it to a back four?" His reply was along the lines of the back three is the answer to all the problems and we make it works no matter what

With regards to England not having a talented squad, then surely we should play a system that gets the best from the players we do have, rather than shoehorning them into an unfamiliar one where our better players are weakened

Walker is one of the world's best right backs and played at centre half
Sterling is far more dynamic and a real threat when coming in from wide positions yet was played in a David Silva position

England should have set up like a downmarket City
Starting with a back four with Delph at left back who moves into midfield to create the extra man when we are in posession
Henderson the screen
Rashford and Sterling wide
Kane up front
Ali has been shite this season so Loftus Cheek should have been in with then a toss up between Wellshit and Lingard

Frighten the opposition with electric pace out wide and control the midfield

He definitely should have changed the system in the second half last night. England stopped playing completely and were relying almost solely on long balls to Kane. Croatia had way too much space out wide and changing to a back four would definitely have helped.

 

[IH8MUFC]

Put Foden in that team in 4 years time. Stick with the manager. Some national pride has been restored.

Southgate can only polish a turd so much. From halftime onwards, we could all see how much better Croatia were on the ball, not that we didn't expect this before the game.

It's time to move most of these players on from the national team now and start building around the future which Foden will be a huge part of. Players that are comfortable on the ball and don't panic and hit it anywhere. Notably Jordan Henderson.

With the likes of Dasilva, Hudson-Odoi, Sancho, Foden, Mount, Mccechran, Brewster, Gomes, McGuane, Panzo, Sterling, Latibeaudiere, Maddison, Roberts, Sessegnon Brothers, Lookman, Greenwood we have some amazing young players and in 4 years we could have the most exciting team in the world cup.

 

[Cobra]

England should have set up like a downmarket City
Starting with a back four with Delph at left back who moves into midfield to create the extra man when we are in posession
Henderson the screen
Rashford and Sterling wide
Kane up front
Ali has been shite this season so Loftus Cheek should have been in with then a toss up between Wellshit and Lingard

Frighten the opposition with electric pace out wide and control the midfield

How exactly would we be controlling the midfield with Henderson playing there on his own?