The Gareth Southgate Appreciation Thread (Warning may contain lots of words)

[gdm]

Not good enough, never was. First major challenge he failed. Wears a nice waistcoat mind

[Si]

He's done more than any England  manager in the last 20 odd years. Yes he's limited but he's done a bloody good job of taking an England team no one gave a fuck about and giving them some pride.

[Crumpy Gunt]

He's done more than any England  manager in the last 20 odd years. Yes he's limited but he's done a bloody good job of taking an England team no one gave a fuck about and giving them some pride.

 

He's far exceeded most peoples expectations. It was almost enjoyable watching an England team shorn of all the  utter shithouses that have completely underperformed for decades. The Golden Generation?!

 

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

Holy fuck, I agree with Crumpy

[Stifler]

With what he has in terms of players, he's done really well. I still think there should have been a place in the squad for Shelvey, but aside from that, I don't think there was a single person he could have brought in who would have been able to open up the defences more. Maybe we just aren't creating attack-minded midfielders in this country, at least not central midfielders.

Alli looks like another Gerrard, will be able to turn it on for his club, but not his country. Henderson might be a tidy player to keep things ticking over, but this competition has shown that he can't complete a full game anymore and he can't get the ball moving forward. Dier seems to be another English youngster who had promise but won't deliver. Overall the tournament showed England where they are severely lacking in quality and probably need to focus on in future. I'd also say that as well as that, this tournament has shown how intelligent the game has become, where simply having flair players won't be enough. France were probably the most organised side in the tournament and they saw off Belgium and Argentina who both have great attackers that in recent tournaments would have been enough to win the World Cup. Us and Croatia were possibly the best-organised teams on the other side of the draw and we both got the semis. It's probably a testament to Southgate more than anything. 

[STM]

He needs a plan B, basically. If ever there was a time to shore up the defence and bring on Shelvey and Vardy (as people had said before the tournament), yesterday was it.

 

Looking forward to seeing some youngsters emerge into this side.

[Stottie]

England overachieved, but this was such a fantastic opportunity to reach the final, where anything can happen. It is truly regrettable.

 

Tactically, I think we are compromising our best players, Kane, Sterling, and Alli, to fit the system. Two play for Spurs, and they use two dedicated CMs with either three or four at the back. Usually some combination of Dembele, Dier, Wanyama and Winks. Against Croatia, Alli touched the ball five times in our box, only once in theirs. It was his job to get out to the lad in acres who wafted the cross in for Croatia's equalizer. That's not Alli's forte. Sterling should be out wide and operate in more space as an easier to reach out ball. He barely touched the ball in this game. Kane, our best player, is wasted playing as deep as he is.

 

I think 3-4-2-1 or 4-2-3-1 would give a more solid base to launch attacks, to slow the game down when ahead, and to stop our fine attacking players from drifting deep to help defend. Maybe in a few years when other players come through, then switch to 3-5-2.

[Leek]

Set us up with a plan and got us playing as a unit which I've not seen us do in my life, hes also managed to get a group which we can get behind. I had my reservations as him before the World Cup but hes changed my perception of the national team and him, but I believe he cost us with having no other tactic or plan. The way we've gone out and the cards we got handed that was literally our chance to get to a final, but we got knocked out by Croatia which is really a nation we should be beating.

[NG32]

He's done more than any England  manager in the last 20 odd years. Yes he's limited but he's done a bloody good job of taking an England team no one gave a fuck about and giving them some pride.

 

He's far exceeded most peoples expectations. It was almost enjoyable watching an England team shorn of all the  utter shithouses that have completely underperformed for decades. The Golden Generation?!

 

 

 

Yep, that group of players had totally turned me off following England.

 

 

[NG32]

Looks like the togetherness, the application and the attitude of the squad has carried us through games where wev've been struglling .  It finally caught up with us last night where we just lacked one or two players in the team who could create or knick a goal for us.

 

 

 

Its the first tournament for this group and hopefully the experience of Russia will stick and by the time the Euros come round we may have a better selection choice.

 

 

[joeyt]

[Yorkie]

I think he did so much so very well, but ultimately came up short tactically. But I have massive respect for the guy and I already can't wait for the Euros tbh. I'm gutted about last night - and particularly the fairly feeble way we ultimately lost - but it's easy to feel proud and optimistic from here. What you want most of all, as football fans, is to really feel something and to believe that your team can achieve things. We've felt that rejuvenation recently as Newcastle fans, and now felt it as England fans too. So huge props to Southgate for enabling that.

[taxfree]

I don't think it can be underestimated just how poor our player pool is like, we're never going to be able to play like Belgium. From a footballing perspective I was massively impressed tbh.

 

Defensively we're error prone but that's really the only criticism I can think of.

 

It's a team full of Premier League players. It's hardly that bad.

[Hanshithispantz]

I don't think it can be underestimated just how poor our player pool is like, we're never going to be able to play like Belgium. From a footballing perspective I was massively impressed tbh.

 

Defensively we're error prone but that's really the only criticism I can think of.

 

It's a team full of Premier League players. It's hardly that bad.

well if you want to ignore all context that’s fair enough like. We’re being measured against not making a world cup final.

 

With regards to the players we had we played well throughout the whole tournament.

[Hanshithispantz]

It’s bad in comparison to about half a dozen others in a 32 team tournament. We’re like Porto or Milan or something if they ‘re in the Champions League.

 

Our players obviously aren’t shit.

[Shearergol]

Our player pool is not bad imo. That side was all very good players playing at top clubs, and without that we've left Lallana/Wilshire/Chamberlain etc at home. We've got a lot of young players coming through underneath this generation.  The future is bright for us imo. We have arguably the best out and out striker in world football atm up front.

 

Ox in that team and I truly believe we win last night.

[Mole_Toonfan]

In terms of players ready I think it is, pretty much all the subs were vastly inferior options and Chamberlain aside I don't see much more.

 

I don't know about the young players coming through as I don't really pay enough attention but in terms of established players I don't feel like there's much beyond that first XI.

[taxfree]

I don't think it can be underestimated just how poor our player pool is like, we're never going to be able to play like Belgium. From a footballing perspective I was massively impressed tbh.

 

Defensively we're error prone but that's really the only criticism I can think of.

 

It's a team full of Premier League players. It's hardly that bad.

well if you want to ignore all context that’s fair enough like. We’re being measured against not making a world cup final.

 

With regards to the players we had we played well throughout the whole tournament.

 

I think the pool is fine to reach a final though - player for player. Especially looking at this tournament. Loads of teammates from club football, seemingly a good group of lads. A lot of things going for the squad. I think it's more the history that makes this run seem so positive. To be fair, it really seems to have brought some real optimism and pride back.

[Hanshithispantz]

Belgium an all. I think Croatia are about our level and the narrative now is that they’ve done fantastic to get to the final.

 

People are talking like making the semis wasn’t a good achievement because of our easy route but we hardly had the squad to be able to say that imo. And all said and done I don’t think we had a bad performance. Yesterday looked worse than it was because we were absolutely fucked by the end of it.

 

I’m just rambling now anyway

[Tooj]

Some great posts in this thread about the country being united etc.

 

Feel like we've got the foundations of something to get behind again, especially with some of the talent that we have coming through. We just need somebody in the middle who can put his foot on the ball and control the tempo when needed.

 

Hopefully people don't expect too much now and give Southgate time as he's very much still learning at this level too. Onwards and upwards.

[Jill]

Some great posts in this thread about the country being united etc.

 

These past few weeks have been absolutely great, everyone united and having fun, people striking up conversations with strangers about the matches and the team, brilliant stuff and I've honestly felt like an 11 year old watching Euro 96 again. I'm really excited for the future.

 

Also fancy Southgate a bit now so there's that as well.

[BlufPurdi]

Some great posts in this thread about the country being united etc.

 

These past few weeks have been absolutely great, everyone united and having fun, people striking up conversations with strangers about the matches and the team, brilliant stuff and I've honestly felt like an 11 year old watching Euro 96 again. I'm really excited for the future.

 

Also fancy Southgate a bit now so there's that as well.

 

Can only echo the Euro '96 sentiment.  It's not just the Three Lions song, it felt like we exorcised a lot of demons this time around which was similar to then.  A bit of that annoyed me, mind.  I felt like that was when we put '90 to bed and showed to everyone we could still be great, but I guess a lot of the younger generation never even experienced it (96), so I get it that this was a moment for them.  Like when we beat Colombia on penalties, it meant nowt to me, we beat Spain in '96 as far as I was concerned.  Just being a fanny though, why let facts get in the way of a good narrative.

 

 

[joeyt]

Someone wrote into F365 to predict the England starting line-up in Euro 2020. They put:

 

Pickford

 

Walker  Stones Maguire

 

Trippier/TAA RLC Winks Dier/Henderson  Rose/Sessegnon

 

Sterling/Alli Kane

 

 

[Infinitely Content]

Central midfield is awful. Either those players would need to be much, much improved by then, or they need Shelvey. I'd go for the latter.

[mrmojorisin75]

winks?

 

just don't get winks hype at all, maybe i've missed all the class games he's had...entirely possible