Italy v England | Thurs 23rd March 2023, 19:45

[super_city_si]

Southgate is a want to be pep but he is so far departed form pep mentally. his problem is he is old school england at heart. Look how he managed the second half.

pep defends a lead by having ALL of the ball. Southgate defends a lead by sitting back and letting the opposition have all of the ball.

pep would never have subbed off phil. He would have had as many technical players on the pitch as he could and played keep ball. southgate subbed off phil becuase saka used to play full back so southgate instinctively thinks i want a defender. He cant grasp defending by possession.

 

[jimharri]

Great effort to see it out but we're fortunate this a pretty piss poor Italian team.

Yeah, I didn't think they hold on for the win when the Italians got that goal back with over half an hour to go. We should consider Southgate when Pep leaves.

 

[tweety]

To have any chance of a trophy Southgate has to go

 

[BlueHammer85]

Don’t think I’ll be backing you up on that bit mate. We won because we’ve got 7 or 8 really great players that dug him out. We shit ourselves and retreat every time we go in front in big games and that’s down to his tactics. As it is when we win. And we did just thankfully so all good for now. Should never have been anywhere near that close after the excellent first half though

Surely that’s football, especially international level when teams are roughly on par - Italy away was never going to be a walk in the park despite how assured we looked 1st half - Mancini would have absolutely fired them up to go gung ho second half

 

[Jesus H Gabz]

And be replaced with whom? Name specific names, not 'somebody else'.

Enrique Pochetino Tuchel would all do a better job

 

[Legal Alien]

Italy had to go for the jigglier and we were down to 10 , totally normal for us to be camped in our half and to see out the game

It wasn’t baffling for me, he sacrificed an attacker for a defender - needs must. Unfortunate for Phil but I would guess Southgate trusted Saka more defensively and holding the ball up

We sat back the whole 2nd half mate.

He took Saka off 5 mins later tho!

 

[blue moony]

Italy had to go for the jigglier and we were down to 10 , totally normal for us to be camped in our half and to see out the game

It wasn’t baffling for me, he sacrificed an attacker for a defender - needs must. Unfortunate for Phil but I would guess Southgate trusted Saka more defensively and holding the ball up

Ffs heard it all now saksa probably struggles to hold his mrs legs up when he’s making little sakas....

He’s weaker than Steven Hawkins legs

 

[Mancity1980]

Anyone remember Lineker having a pen against Brazil in a friendly he needed to equalise Charlton’s England goal scoring record and missing it? Never to score for England again. Kane made no mistake with today’s opportunity.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

That 2nd half was a hard watch. What did Southgate say at HT to terrify our midfield into retreating into the
defence.

 

[wattle]

Nothing unfortunate about it. Southgate should have taken Saka off. Southgate clueless

In fairness what was he doing bringing phil on at that stage anyway? The fact that he has to immediately take him off speaks volumes for that