Gareth Southgate

OntarioBlue said:
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.
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Pretty much agree.
 
IH8MUFC said:
Southgate can only polish a turd so much. .
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This.

Although he showed some tactical naivety last night, he has massively overachieved getting that squad to a semi final, with basically no midfield. The midfield was shite throughout the tournament, but there a no good English midfielders who would have sufficiently changed things.
 
Got it massively wrong tactically last night. Showed his inexperience and lack of being able to react to a situation.

They worked us out. They saw that pushing our wing backs back into a back five freed up an ocean of space for either their full backs in the space where our wing backs were or in midfield when our midfielders were moving wider to occupy their full backs.

There was no reaction to that from Southgate.

Modric (arguably the best midfielder in the world for the last five years) was free to go anywhere he wanted and do anything he wanted.

The formation should have changed to flood the midfield. 4-5-1... take Trippier/Walker off on the right for Delph/Dier, sit Delph/Dier in with Henderson, bring Sterling back as a winger on the right and take Alli off for Rashford to play on the left wing.

His like-for-like substitution of Sterling for Rashford was unimaginative at best, tactically unaware at worst. He just wanted a fresh Rashford to do what Sterling had done for 75 minutes but hadn’t cottoned onto the fact that they were winning tactically and that lead to them winning the match.

Poor, very disappointed in him.

Their two goals came from loads of our players doing the wrong thing or losing concentration but had the tactics been right they may have been avoided.
 
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quiet_riot said:
This.

Although he showed some tactical naivety last night, he has massively overachieved getting that squad to a semi final, with basically no midfield. The midfield was shite throughout the tournament, but there a no good English midfielders who would have sufficiently changed things.
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Spot on.
He has instilled a spirit and energy and belief into the team and us that enabled them to go way beyond both expectation and if we're brutally honest, their individual abilities.
Last night he made two errors in my view, left Young on when we were being destroyed down that side, and second mistake is that his go-to substitution is Rashford for Sterling and to me he should have made the (very) bold step of replacing Kane.
But I think as a national manager he is improving all the time and if the clubs in England can produce some world class midfielders and competition for Kane, in the next 2-3 years, then we can have another ride in Qatar
 
well done Southgate for creating a unit we could get behind and for reaching the semis, credit is deserved

But your blind faith in Alli was a major part of your undoing. Ridiculous in the end. (And that Rashford sub was dire :D)
 
dickie davies said:
Did you watch City play last season?
Henderson wouldn't be on his own
When the opposition have the ball our shape is a 4/1/4/1 or a 4/5/1
When in possession it becomes a 3/2/2/3
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City have De Bruyne, Silva and Fernandinho - England don’t. You can’t control a midfield if the players aren’t good enough to do so.
 
Cobra said:
City have De Bruyne, Silva and Fernandinho - England don’t. You can’t control a midfield if the players aren’t good enough to do so.
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Well we couldn't control the midfield anyway, so as I said in my original post, tactically set up like a downmarket City and get the most out of the better players by playing them in their correct position
 
shemnel said:
well done Southgate for creating a unit we could get behind and for reaching the semis, credit is deserved

But your blind faith in Alli was a major part of your undoing. Ridiculous in the end. (And that Rashford sub was dire :D)
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Rashford isn't good enough to be a starter for Utd & apart from a couple of good goals, has been dogshite for England pretty much every time he's played.

But Southgate was put under loads of pressure pre tournament, to pick him & at the same time drop Sterling & that issue has, imo, clouded the thinking in what should have been the real issue: the midfield plus Deli Ali.

But he's done well to get any kind of tune out of a shit banjo imo.
 
Forget the nit-picking and tribalism. If we look at the nation’s reaction to the England team now, and compare it to just before the WC, Southgate has done brilliantly. Both on and off the field.

Looking forward, I’d be much more confident in him trying out more youngsters than the Croydon civil servant and others before him.

Credit where due. We have modest resources but can feel pretty proud of our national team
 
My biggest worry going forwards is he made the same mistake twice first against Colombia when we got away with it and then again last night where we didn't (taking Sterling off)
 
I think Southgate has shown himself open to listening to others and is still learning. It was disappointing that he couldn’t respond tactically last night but if he is given time and a clutch of world class youngsters coming through, he may just succeed. He understands the PR side of the job better than just about anyone I have seen in the post. Hope he books a three monthly session with Pep while he is here. That would do him the world of good.
 
Happy the way Southgate wants us to play but he got lucky with draw we got plus seems like Ali and Kane are the untouchables! Rashdord for Ali Delph for Kane Dier for Henderson.
 
Neville Kneville said:
Rashford isn't good enough to be a starter for Utd & apart from a couple of good goals, has been dogshite for England pretty much every time he's played.

But Southgate was put under loads of pressure pre tournament, to pick him & at the same time drop Sterling & that issue has, imo, clouded the thinking in what should have been the real issue: the midfield plus Deli Ali.

But he's done well to get any kind of tune out of a shit banjo imo.
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He certainly has done well to work with what we are good at and that is set pieces. Definite work on the training ground there.

Ultimately though we have only beaten Tunisia, Panama, Columbia and Sweden. None of whom I would expect us to lose against.

I was a bit disappointed last night as I thought at half time we had it in the bag.

Still much better than expected in a very strange tournament.
 
I hate the phrase, I really hate it, but he was found out yesterday big time. I just hope, being a smart man, he introduces some flexibility and pragmatism to his game management.
 
Thought at first he was a breath of fresh air but last night he seemed to go the way of other managers and not take of his so called big players Kean has been poor the last two matches yet it's Sterling who had been our biggest threat gets hooked. Should have been brave and put rashford or Steptoe on for kean. Again Ali didn't do much nor lingard. Just seems to me if england are struggling take if sterling....
 
SpiritofBurnden said:
Really?

We managed to lose to Iceland in the last tournament.

Underestimating opponents can be very costly as the likes of Spain and Germany found out at this tournament.
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I agree but I would still have us as favourites for all of those games which we were. We have done well but we still find it difficult against the top sides. As soon as we play one, we struggle. I think it’s progress but with the let’s not get too carried away just yet caveat.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I agree but I would still have us as favourites for all of those games which we were. We have done well but we still find it difficult against the top sides. As soon as we play one, we struggle. I think it’s progress but with the let’s not get too carried away just yet caveat.
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It's all relative though, we're not a top side either.

So in that respect, beating some of the teams we've faced is an achievement.

Colombia and Sweden are no mugs and we battered Croatia in the first half last night.
 
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