England v Hungary | Nations League | Tues 14th June '22

I've been against Southgate since the Croatia world cup semi, when, after we took the lead he let us sit on the edge of out area and had Pickford just hoofing the ball back to them for 85 minutes. It was just sit back and wait for the inevitable as Croatia weren't a team you wanted to give the ball to. We lost.

Fast forward to a piss easy Euros and the final against Italy. REPEAT ABOVE. Italy we shit scared of our counter. We had legit threat and pace and after scoring first we had them exactly where we want them. Except, we decided to pull everyone back and give italy the ball. They no longer had to worry about the counter and could commit men forward. We lost.

I am not going to judge Southgate on 4 post season games when it was a largely mixed team every game and non of the players were remotely interested. I will judge him on the pathetic cowardly football he employs that may get us to another semi but will result in the same cowardly capitulation.
 
KentBlue said:
Pickford should be nowhere near the International set-up. Sorry to Toffees fans on here but I truly believe he's a liability.
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Once upon a time we had an embarrassment of riches when it came to goalkeepers. Now we have a clutch who aren't very good, but I think Pickford is the pick of the bunch!
 
I genuinely like Southgate as a man and think he's set a really great example off the pitch. He's been openly supportive of the players in tough moments and championed important causes like the fight against racism and other forms of prejudice in the sport and society at large. He's a decent human being and I'll admire him for that, no matter what. And I've enjoyed following and cheering for England more than ever in my lifetime, thanks to the fact that he's been leading the way.

That aside, as a manager, I've found him wanting for quite a while now. On paper, he's done very well to get England to a final and a semi. You can't take that away from him, but I do think that with the squad we've got at the minute, those are the sorts of results we should be aiming for and any half-decent coach should be achieving. And when it comes to those big crunch moments like the last half hour vs Italy and the semi with Croatia, he's lacked the ability or perhaps the courage to take control and turn things around, repeatedly relying on negative tactics that don't seem to make the most of our strongest assets.

For what it's worth, I think Deschamps is an awful manager and he's won a World Cup, so it just goes to show that you don't necessarily need a Pep-level mind to enjoy success in these kinds of competitions. So GS will be in charge for the WC and he could somehow win the whole thing. I at least think England will give a much better account of themselves there than they have in these daft Nations League games, but it does feel like some of the country's brightest talent for years is going to waste under this coach, and unless a miracle happens in Qatar, it'll have to be his last stand.
 
Trouble is Soutgate has had two attempts to win a major tournament (one held in England) and has failed both times. The latter England rarely mustered a convincing performance throughout the majority of the tournament.
 
Southgate seems to have got the England players united and happy to play for their country and to play together. And that's actually a significant achievement when you look at the England squads of the past.

And yeah, he's had two tournaments where England have got further than they've managed in a really long time. That's not despite him, he's been a part of it. England have improved in a lot of ways under his management.

We've talked a lot I think about how he's not particularly tactically astute, and I do think that's really hurting the team.

But I also worry that the man-management, which he's had a lot of praise for in the past couple of years, is falling off a little. And if he loses the support of the players then he's gone.

Last round of friendlies, he called up Tyrick Mitchell, who played and did pretty well. Not the most exciting left-back in the world, but a promising young player who's had a good season, deserved an opportunity and absolutely didn't blow it. Fast forward to the Nations League, Shaw and Chilwell are injured, how much of a kick in the teeth is it for Mitchell that not only is he not called up, but we've got Reece James playing left-back for what might be the first time in his career?

Where's the path for someone like Mitchell to work towards one day being a squad regular? And what does it do for James' confidence to be on the end of a big defeat in a match where he struggled through the first half and then had to be moved in the second?

The Grealish Problem is probably worst of all, though. Of course he's our player, and I'm a fan, but I don't think it's biased to say that he should absolutely be starting for England. Fans, pundits, other managers, opposition players and - perhaps most damningly - his England teammates all know it. It's almost embarrassing how obvious it is that Kane, for example, likes having him on the pitch.

No player is perfect and Jack does have plenty he can work on. But England with Grealish on the pitch have teeth. Focused, relentless attacking purpose tempered by (and I think City can claim a little credit for this) patient, probing possession.

Playing Grealish doesn't solve the problem of the wonky defence or the weak midfield, but it solves the problem of where the chances are going to come from. And either Southgate doesn't see that (in which case he's a worse manager than we thought) or he sees it but omits the player because of a personal resentment (in which case it's probably only Grealish's easygoing demeanour and humility stopping some dressing room fireworks).
 
coolcity said:
Hungary weren't even that good though. Keeper was awful for the first two goals, I didn't see the last two but a half decent keeper should have saved those.
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Got to disagree with you mate . Hungary were well drilled stood there ground and passed the ball really well and when there chances came they clinically took them . Hungarian football is on the up at moment and it’s great to see .
 
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