The only positive you could give Southgate is playing Guehi over Lewis Dunk.
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England squad
- Thread starter YidoBuckler
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The only positive you could give Southgate is playing Guehi over Lewis Dunk.
Ok 1/10
but back to 0 for not bringing branthwaite
He is talking out of his arse. His head has clearly gone, maybe stress.
Foden, Gallagher, Palmer, Saka have no issue pressing for their clubs. Gallagher in particular is a press machine. Southgate has zero idea how to set up a press that is the issue.
-1 for not taking a left back with working legs.
Maybe only half a point deduction as one leg is OK !!
Keane had no weaknesses …….
Actually the pressing issues are interesting, it seems like they've either not been coached to press (which I find hard to believe because they do it for their clubs) or they don't want to, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that there may be some discipline issues in the camp and some players are just blatantly passing on responsibility and not even bothering to sprint.
England have averaged 23.12 PPDA in their two games which is absolutely horrendous - Under Conte before his sacking we were averaging around 14/15 and that was shit (we averaged 7/8 with Ange which was the best in the league last season) - 23.12 PPDA is get the manager sacked territory because there's absolutely no way a bunch of highly paid pro footballers can be this unfit.
For context it was 10.4 in the World Cup, 17.7 in the last Euro's and 10.80 in the qualifiers so something has seriously gone wrong and missing Calvin Phillips doesn't even begin to cover it.
England have averaged 23.12 PPDA in their two games which is absolutely horrendous - Under Conte before his sacking we were averaging around 14/15 and that was shit (we averaged 7/8 with Ange which was the best in the league last season) - 23.12 PPDA is get the manager sacked territory because there's absolutely no way a bunch of highly paid pro footballers can be this unfit.
For context it was 10.4 in the World Cup, 17.7 in the last Euro's and 10.80 in the qualifiers so something has seriously gone wrong and missing Calvin Phillips doesn't even begin to cover it.
My general feeling is pressing is being done in the same way Foden is being played. I don’t think Southgate wants to press in the same way I think he would rather have Sterling and Philips over Foden and Mainoo in the squad.
However he can’t bring Sterling and Philips because they have been awful and he can’t sit back totally because it would look crazy with such talents like Foden and Bellingham so it’s all half arsed. ‘Press but don’t press’, type instruction and as Rangnick said you can’t press a bit you either press or you don’t.
Don't get this thing about Rice being one of our worst performers for us this tournament so far. He was pretty shocking in the last game but I thought he did well in the first, constantly winning the ball back, which as a number 6 is his main job. Playing as a number 8 most the season for his club and then having to play much more defensively all of a sudden clearly hasn't helped him. Which is why it just makes total sense to play Wharton, with Rice more advanced.
Not bringing a fit LB is negligence. What Southgate seems to misunderstand about football management is that his job is to put together the best team possible to fit a style of play. That does not mean putting all your favourite players together, half of whom are out of position. Sometimes you will you will have to play a lesser player to benefit the team. For example, at LB we have Livramento and Mitchell. Both are fine to good. Trippier is probably a better player than them but he is not a left back. Play a LB at LB.
At 10 we have Kane, Foden, Bellingham and even Rice all playing in the same space. If you are going to play them all, give them specific instructions at least.
At CM, if you want to keep possession, play a ball playing midfielder who can play on the half turn. Wharton for example. Rice cannot play that role and Trent is not good enough.
He has been playing three RBs for fuck sake. He is an idiot. This is all basic stuff.
A back 3 with Walker on the right of the 3, Reece James and Shaw as wing-backs would be more convincing. Unlucky with injuries.
I said ages ago ironically if you were going to build around Foden did Southgate not realise that Maddison or Grealish, are far better proxies for the kind of player Fodden excelled playing with. Stuffing the team with direct runners in Saka Watkins Gordon made no sense. Genuinely think Southgate and his number two are a bit tactically dim.
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He hasn't been unlucky, Shaw has been injured for months and was known to be injured for the start of the tournament. He should have brought at least one fit LB.
It's not bad luck. He caused his own problem(s).
"Bit of everything" + "run about a bit" + vibes is a decidedly mid-table (at best) way to do things... Football has long moved on.
.....Even "keep things simple" requires a degree of tactical nouse.
Not to mention the fact that you need to be able to react to what the oppo throw at you (something that Gary routinely proves he's incapable of doing).
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Makes sense if you're going to build the team around Kane which is what he's done for the majority but it seems like he's trying to come away from that and has no idea how to adapt.
The last Euro Cup was tailor-made for us to win: 6 out of 7 games at Wembley with almost no opposition fans due to COVID restrictions, the easiest path to the final, and a questionable penalty against Denmark in the semis.
Now, despite having a £1.4 billion squad brimming with talent, we're seeing it wasted once more. Honestly, I wouldn't trust Southgate to manage a Tesco, let alone our national team.
Now, despite having a £1.4 billion squad brimming with talent, we're seeing it wasted once more. Honestly, I wouldn't trust Southgate to manage a Tesco, let alone our national team.