Reply To: Scunthorpe 2.0

[Siderite]

England don’t have a right to win every tournament, no team does, but we do have a right to expect us to play to the best of our ability. Many of these players have shown their class for their clubs, which have made them have very good reputations. Bellingham was sensational for Real Madrid, Kane did have a good season for Bayern and Foden for Man City. My non-English friends say the same thing, so I don’t think it’s all English bias. Many knowledgeable fans can see the same players put in star performances for their clubs, but failing for their country. I don’t believe that Foden can go from being a big player for Man City to resorting to sloppy passing and hoofs from defence as he did with England last night. Pep wouldn’t have that.

Southgate does have a decent record with England. I would say he has done the most to make a united England team out of any manager for decades. This is to his credit, but he isn’t without flaws. It doesn’t seem fair to make out that we have achieved more results under Southgate because of him alone and to say failures only come because of players alone, or vice versa. When looking at the record above, we could say that the players we have got have allowed us to achieve such results, so Ferrite’s criticism of them is as wrong headed as any directed at Southgate because of this. Those results and tournament progressions aren’t bad for a team whose players regularly get found out at international level, where this argument is used against a team like Serbia, who are a good team but not better than some of those we have beaten in the recent past.

I have just finished watching Romania beat Ukraine with a more composed performance than England last night. I doubt the Romanian team are actually more talented than England, but are underhyped because of English bias. Their left back is a Spurs bench player, many others play in leagues of lower quality, but they looked like a team that could have beaten us last night. They were well drilled and knew how to control a lead, which is something we have lacked often under Southgate.

The positives are that we had scrappy performances in groups in all previous tournaments with Gareth and that didn’t stop us achieving more than we had done for years. Gareth clearly can man manage, which has allowed some success, but the performance yesterday was not a one off and is what punished us against Italy in 2021 and Croatia in 2018. He clearly hasn’t found a solution to it, and doesn’t seem to make changes to prevent it. I would expect a coach to be able to drill the squad in how to actually control a game, with possession, like other nations do. Even ones like Romania, with players of a lower calibre. That is on Southgate and I feel like he cannot get more out of the squad, so if we fail, I would like to see a fresh start with another manager who can maybe identify how to maximise the potential. After 4 major tournaments Gareth will have had enough opportunities.