Inept management by Southgate.

I really like Gareth and would give him the job for life.

We've had these 'super' managers before, like Capello for instance. There aren't many better than Fabio throughout history.

We've got to a World Cup semi, eliminated in the 109th minute. And then the EURO final, losing on pens. It's some record.

I remember us failing to qualify for tournaments like that. Losing to Scotland and Ireland, Norway and USA, Australia and Northern Ireland.

This is the best run of form, since Gareth took over, that I've ever known. The buzz I had in the last World Cup, and even this summer in the EUROs, it was so good.

But it's England. Other than 1966, what else have we really achieved of note? It's a massive collection of failures, near-misses and agonising drama.

Wouldn't have it any other way!

 

TBF that's not the same thing as , is Southgate a good manager.

He has some good points but seems scared to death with his tactics and reluctance to make changes, repeats the same mistakes over and over.
For me the frustrating thing is if he would loosed up a bit he could be a really really good manager

 

****ing hell. here we go..

 

Inept manager?

You guys are on a wind up surely.

 

I can only base my opinion on what he has done and his track record to date is one of the best in world football. So yes he obviously is a good manager. Based on his England record better than Ericsson, Hodgson, Cappello, Venables, Hoddle, Robson etc etc.

 

He has, you’re right. No one else has done that as you say. He’s also made the same mistake twice, retreating into defensive mode and handing the initiative first to Croatia and then Italy. Both games we could and likely would have won if he’d been bold enough with his tactics. I don’t doubt Southgate would do the same again in the same position, it’s just his nature.

 

The last 'best' World Cup journey was 1990. When I fell in love with the game. With the great (but pilloried at the time) Bobby Robson in charge.

But we drew with Ireland, drew with Holland, scraped by Egypt with a set play, beat Belgium in the 119th minute with another set play, beat Cameroon with two penalties, then got seen off on pens by the Germans.

The '96 EUROs was maybe a better run in terms of the quality of opposition. But still.

Folk can argue about it all night long, fact remains he's the best we've had since 1966. And largely, with a squad of players that the majority of fans didn't even rate, until we did fairly well. There's wallies on here tonight who were giving Harry Kane grief up until he scored from 35 yards. A bloke with 41 goals for England. Leading scorer at a World Cup.

Nobody knows owt. It's all just opinion. So I'll go with the facts on this one!

 

he could be so much better though if he dropped the negative stuff

 

I find England dull but no worse than Spain or Italy. Far too much fear in international football.

You get teams like Hungry who just defend for 90 minutes. If they showed some ambition like Poland did they might actually win.

When the bigger teams play each other its often become duller.

I don’t especially like Southgate as a manager and his substitutions are generally awful but you can’t argue with his success.

 

Hindsight never managed a football team.

If semis and finals are his nature, I'm happy with that. One day, one of them will go our way. And if not, so what?

 

After twenty minutes of the Euro final we were a goal up, totally on top and looking favourites to score a second. From that point on we shut up shop, surrendered midfield and allowed them free reign of two thirds of the pitch. The inevitable then happened.
I was no great fan of Ismael's style of play but if he'd been in charge of England that night I'm pretty sure we'd have won.

 

That’s putting it mildly! I know it’s a Fan’s Forum but F¥ck me Betty, there’s some absolute nonsense on this thread.

However, I defend my fellow BBS’s right to talk sh|te. On the not unreasonable grounds that on one or two occasions in the past I may have been guilty of something similar

 

Things like this are seriously starting to anger me. Some folk think that football is not a competitive sport, that their fancied team should just steam roll everyone. With no respect for the opposition, whose objective is exactly the same as theirs.
Tonight, Poland hosting England. & we are talking about a very classy middle European state here, with the world’s finest striker in their starting 11.
I’m ****ing off to bed now, before I say something I might regret..

 

We must see different things. Yes I agree it can be slow but we totally dominate the ball and regularly find a way to win. Mainly because the opposition are knackered chasing the ball . We score a lot of goals in the second half due to his tactics.

 

We also Chuck away a lot of games through his tactics, ( especially against the better teams)tonight a fresh pair of legs or three against all the subs the Poles put on would likely be all it needed to keep them out,

 

What if we'd have made the subs you wanted, but Moder still mugged off Walker, and Lewa still set up Szymanski with a perfect cross and perfect header?

What would you have posted then?

 

Grow up. It's a discussion about football.

 

I contend that my 'cons' are just as valid as your 'pros'.

So I'll leave it there, as we're going around in circles. I don't even want England to do well, and I am pretty confident they'll win nothing under Southgate, which suits me fine.