Gareth Southgate - Yay or Nay?

[Bazali]

You say it wasn't Jose ball, but then again he would trot out the same old line about the team not being told to sit on the lead at half time. If not a conscious decision to sit back then Southgate should have been far more proactive in making a sub to try and tip the balance of the game back towards us.

I do think we were too cautious and certainly didn't take full advantage of those first 30 mins or so when we should have gone for the throat. Bizarrely, it felt like we stopped doing the one thing we'd continuously done in previous matches: get it on the wing and cross/cut into the box. Caused Italy problems every time we actually tried it.

I do think Spain may have been the kinder opponent to play though. Less consistent than Italy these past 30 or so international games and I don't think their defence are as horribly savvy as the Italians were.

Jose is nasty and Gary is nice so it doesn’t matter but they both still sat back after taking a lead

Go figure

 

[Bazali]

No - he’s a fraud and tactically inept

And been found out conclusively

Comparing him to Jose really is laughable

What has he won?

 

[Bazali]

Southgate will get the World Cup and hopefully will do well. England have another ‘’golden generation’’ though, the likes of Foden and Bellingham in a few years could be the best players in the World in their position. We can’t fuck it like we did the last one.

Oh yes we can

We fucked it last night like we did in the WC semi final against Croatia
Vardy anyone?

 

[Berserker]

The guy should have been sacked this morning. He's had 2 goes at it. Thanks and Goodbye

 

[COckneY Spurs]

Voted No, but also think he deserves a crack at the WC next Summer, very short window to change things now…..Just needs to play to the squads strength and be less Spurs 2020/21 style….

 

[DJ Check Complete]

Losing on penalties is never pretty to watch. I can’t imagine the pressure he is under, or what the players go through at this level. World Cup is coming fast, I hope Southgate chance again because he did really well.

 

[Bazali]

The guy should have been sacked this morning. He's had 2 goes at it. Thanks and Goodbye

Nailed it

 

[Kid Chameleon]

Southgate has made us more competitive and that's got to count for something. A semi-final and a final two tournaments on the bounce. When has any England manager matched that? Even Bobby Robson wasn't that consistent; failed to quality for Euro 84, quarter final 86, group stage Euro 88, semi final 90.

Semi-finals and finals aren't special occasions for us any more; they're football matches. Again, that's got to count for something.

 

[Zest]

If we had swapped managers, Mancini would have won us the game and Italy wouldn't have been in the final.

Agree with its first, but a defence first coach of Italy… think they might still have been in the final in probability, given the big nations attacking profligacy

 

[The Mercurial No.10]

England are never going to have a better chance of winning a Cup IMO, they should change managers at this point.

 

[cretinousgoat]

Best England Manager since Ramsay, that's FIFTY FIVE YEARS!!!

World Cup semi and Euro's final! This coming off the back of a team that got beat by Iceland immediately followed another who just a couple of weeks into the job was negotiating dodgy backhanders to line his own pockets whilst swigging pints of Blue Nunn.

Do me a favour.

Neville is spot on

 

[Maccer]

England are never going to have a better chance of winning a Cup IMO, they should change managers at this point.

A final at Wembley on a cool , rainy evening, when could it get better than that ?

 

[Beech]

Thing is with Southgate, nobody can argue with the results. If someone had told me we would make a World-Cup semi and a Euro's final when he first got the job after Fat Sam, I would have been rolling on the floor in laughter. But you can argue with the performances in general. We have brilliant forward players that a lot of countries would be envious of, but we often look pretty limp and ordinary. How you can often get as little out of Kane, Sterling, Sancho, Foden, Rashford, Grealish and Mount as Southgate seems to? It really takes some doing.

I'm all for him carrying on. But he absolutely needs to get us creating more chances than we do, especially against the better sides.

 

[Airfixx]

A final at Wembley on a cool , rainy evening, when could it get better than that ?

Sad but true.

 

[Thin Lilywhite Duke]

A final at Wembley on a cool , rainy evening, when could it get better than that ?

I dunno, add in a 2nd minute goal too and you'd think we'd have a shot.

 

[Airfixx]

I dunno, add in a 2nd minute goal too and you'd think we'd have a shot.

Gave you a:

Still want to:

 

[fogueres]

Had Morata put just one of his multiple chances away against Italy in the semi-final Italy (and Mancini) wouldn't have even been in the final.

Morata also misses those goals with Juventus.
If Italy had had a "normal" striker and not those half shoes of Immobile and Belotti ...
If Spinazzola hadn't been injured, if Zaniolo and Pellegrini hadn't injured before the event. With the "ifs" and "buts" ...


If Baggio hadn't kicked the last penalty in Pasadena high ...

 

[fogueres]

You say it wasn't Jose ball, but then again he would trot out the same old line about the team not being told to sit on the lead at half time. If not a conscious decision to sit back then Southgate should have been far more proactive in making a sub to try and tip the balance of the game back towards us.

I do think we were too cautious and certainly didn't take full advantage of those first 30 mins or so when we should have gone for the throat. Bizarrely, it felt like we stopped doing the one thing we'd continuously done in previous matches: get it on the wing and cross/cut into the box. Caused Italy problems every time we actually tried it.

I do think Spain may have been the kinder opponent to play though. Less consistent than Italy these past 30 or so international games and I don't think their defence are as horribly savvy as the Italians were.

The killer instinct was lacking in the first 30 minutes when we didn't understand anything. There you either hit the knockout blow or risk your opponent taking courage. Southgate was misled by his own tactical intuition. He inserted Trippier who generated the goal at the first action. From there he was unable to change unlike Mancini who changed several times involving the players. England seemed unglued at the most difficult moment

 

[fogueres]

But Jose ball was and has always been to sit deep, what he was coming out saying was completly and utter trash, he simply never had us well-drilled enough for us to sit deep and never had us pressing high, despite saying he did!

He did try to change the formation, he took Tripps off. Italy was simply better than us. Their record shows this too, they are unbeaten in what 33(???) games now.

Italy were struggling in the first 30mins but they hung in there, I thought they responded well after going a goal behind and they didn't create too much in the first half (Chiesa's effort being the only notable one, which was crafted solely by him rather than what Italy did as a team). They did shut down Shaw in the last 15mins or so and had pushed him back, a lot of people were praising Shaw, which I get but when he's pressed aggressively his passing is erratic and I thought he wasn't that impactful outside of the first half an hour as a direct result of Italy pressing him and thus our supply into Kane (dropping deep to collect and link) didn't happen. The same also on the other side of the pitch with Tripps. And when Tripps gets deep he doesn't stop crosses and shots.

So, this is where I thought was the key tactical thing that Italy got to grips with in first half and it meant we could no longer get on the ball as a result. Phillips and Rice were still controlling the middle of the park.

2nd half Italy then took the game away from us even more by winning the midfield battle by dropping Veratti deeper and out of reach from Phillips and Rice, both of whom were still playing well, just now unable to get to where Italy were dedicating play from. This is where a pressing Kane backed up by an energetic Mount should have been far more aggressive.

But all this still adds up to us just not being as good as Italy. I don't think there should be any shame in this, we took them to pens, they could only score once and that was from a scrabbled set piece. (I rewatched the 82 hand of God game vs Argentina last year and fuck me we were completly outplayed, from front to back, we barely strung a pass together all game. I mention this because the narratic=ve from this game from those that played in it and the English media is that England was robbed! What utter bollocks! This team is competing far, far better than any England side I've watched (it's not as exciting as '96 Euro side but they lost too and peaked at that tournament, where this team is the 2nd youngest in the entire tournament. We will be back challenging semi-finals of Euro's and World Cups for the next decade IMO.

England have impressive player potential if they find a way to field them in a balanced way