What a win, what a performance. I get that performances have not been great against Panama and DR of Congo, but we need to give these teams credit. It isn’t the world cup of 30 years ago; these teams are more of a challenge and we aren’t the only ones to have struggled. Germany lost to Paraguay, Spain and Argentina struggled against Cape Verde, Brazil lost to Norway. Ultimately, our quality shone through and Tuchel made the right tactical and strategical decisions against DR of Congo and Mexico. The right substitutions, the right changes of shape and he appears to love the job, which is more than what could have been said for Capello. Southgate was a good man manager, he changed the ethos of the England camp, but he was lacking strategically. If Southgate was manager, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had lost against Mexico for that reason, so I am happy having a coach who can manage the game better and still have that same team spirit.
People have criticised England and expect little based off the failed, egotistical ‘golden generation’ and the weak squad from 2010-2018, but this England is different. They showed it under Southgate, and they showed it yesterday – that they do have pride in the shirt, which is more than what could be said for Rooney, Lampard, Ferdinand et al. It doesn’t mean we are bound to win the world cup, Norway will be a tough proposition, but we can surely have some pride in our team and think we can have a chance of winning against whoever we play.
