As an occasional critic of Southgate on here I just wanted summarise what I have said about him in the past so I am not accused of being smart after the event.
He seems a very nice man and obviously has talent as a man manager and a football coach.
I have no issue with his tactics when we are playing teams we probably should beat. In fact his record in these games is excellent. Other than Ramsey and Robson most previous England managers have struggled to even achieve this. So well done Gareth.
My issue with him is when we face an equal or better team. His inbuilt caution kicks in and he reverts to 5 at the back with 2 holding midfield players and tries to defend his way to victory while snatching a breakaway or set piece goal.
For some quality teams this works but for the current crop of England players all the positives are going forward and most of the negatives are in defence. Asking the Saka’s, Foden’s, Rashford’s, Sterling’s and Grealish’s to act as auxillary full backs focuses them on something they are not very good at and negates what they are good at.
Take the Croatia semi and the Italy final. Both against teams that were good but not really great. In both games he was given a winning lottery ticket with an early goal from an unlikely source. Both oppenents were rocking and shell shocked after conceding. Instead of unleashing the cavalry and getting the goal(s) that would have probably won those matches the team dropped deeper and deeper and barely laid a glove on the opposition after scoring.
To win this world cup he is probably going to have to beat 3 teams that are better than Croatia 2018 and Italy 2021. I don’t think he will do it with the tactics he has employed in the past when it gets to squeaky bum time.
I hope I am wrong obviously but I would rather get beat 4-3 by France, Spain or Brazil having given it a real go that slink out to a low scoring defeat or penalties after a snoozefest.
