Slept on it

Mixed feelings.

Southgate is a top class bloke. That quote in one of his interviews when asked about what he’d say to Saka on his penalty miss: “that it’s on me”. Fair play.

The way he’s created unity in the squad and stood up for equality, and fiercely defended his players. Love it.

World Cup semi-final and Euro final only to lose on pens. Objectively good results.

But I can’t help but tear my hair out watching England play under him. I thought the management yesterday was really naïve; go one goal up and defend for the rest of the game. We had attacking midfielders with flair, dribbling ability and pace against two centre-halves with a combined age of 70, and never pressed that potential advantage.

Against Belgium the other day in the final minutes of ET we had 3 or 4 opportunities to create a clear cut chance with very high likelihood of scoring and killing the game, and chose to walk to the corner flag instead.

In the second half yesterday and especially in ET, we looked knackered. We’ve got so much fresh talent on the bench, and he just refused to acknowledge it.

Then he brought on two players with no time to warm up to take pens, both missed.

Then he entrusted the vital last penalty to a teenager, after what happened to him in 96.

I’d love to see the talent in the England team try to play something more aggressive a la Denmark. I’ve moaned all the way through the tournament at our sideways and backwards passing, only to be told to shut up because it’s getting results. But I have wondered if we’re getting results despite Southgate, and not necessarily because of him.

 

i like him as a bloke, as a man-manager. as a coach and tactician he's failed two auditions. But credit for making the audition.
I love how this group feels genuinely close, no distractions, no slipups like in past like the WAGs in Sven's camp or the prison of Capello's reign.
Better than Big Sam, McLaren, Hodgson - But i just wish he'd go for it. Defending for 115mins is no way to win a game with that attacking talent available.

I despised some of Sven's decisions but considering everything that was against him during his reign i think he actually did Ok to reach QF after QF.

I don't care about the penalty decisions. a 19 year old is just as capable of scoring a penalty as anyone else.

 

Agree largely, more concerned about what that miss is doing to him

 

This might seem odd but I couldn't give a monkey's. The reason being there were no "what if moments". In fact other than our goal we didn't have any moments. At least we didn't miss any guilt edged chances.

As for penalties. It's a lottery but there's no excuse for Rashford's. His miss set the rot in and gave Italy the advantage. That goes in there isn't as much pressure on Sancho or Saka.

Managers can't tell players where to hit the ball. They can instruct them to "hit" the ball though. Too passive.

 

His tactical setup from going one up completely baffled me yesterday.

The second half in particular came across as just a waiting game for them to score - and then change it. Inevitably thats exactly what happened.

 

Someone posted we are the second best team in Europe..

IMHO last night England 'bested' Italy in the first half.

Mancini switched thing around after the break and Southgate appeared to adopt a safety first policy rather than attacking. That combination meant Italy 'bested' England in the second half.

Again,IMO, there was no clear 'winner' in the extra time period so after 120 minutes honours were pretty even.

England therefore did not really lose a football match but rather lost a penalty shootout albeit same outcome i.e. runners up, but puts it things in a different perspective in that we were not beaten by the European Champions in a game of football.

 

I'm probably feeling the opposite. Euro 96 was gut wrenching, but at least you knew we had a go, but last night feels self inflicted.

 

Southgate's negativity finally caught up with him. Compare his tactics to Mancini and tell me who the better manager is. Could have won that

 

Mancini's team couldn't afford to be negative as they were losing! They were indeed in total control for 15-20 mins after the equaliser, but England recovered from that, and I'd say that both teams looked equally strong again afterwards. England even controlled the game towards the end, I thought!

 

It was a bit like a fireworks display where after an exciting opening salvo you were watching one Roman Candle after another. The rockets were left in the box and forgotten about until the last minute by which time the touchpaper had got damp and they misfired. Damp squibs.

 

I think the problem was, we recovered after the change in formation, back to a back 4. But we waited for the equaliser to do it.

That said, was a scrappy goal to concede, and I think Stones and Mount will be disappointed with how they defended that corner.

 

My only gripe is us sitting on a lead, it didn’t work against Croatia & it didn’t work last night. I think we should’ve believed in ourselves a bit more but who’s to say that’s even Gareth’s fault? Are players doing that themselves on the pitch because they’re feeling the pressure?

As for the penalty takers & blaming Southgate, I’m sorry but that’s just nonsense. They’re top class players who kick footballs daily. They kicked the ball about pre-game, they did the same at half time. They will have scored loads of pens in training. They don’t need loads of touches to get warmed into the game. Nerves got to them & they took bad pens, it happens.

It’s happened to better players than them three. I remember Gerrard & Lampard missing in an England shootout, two outstanding penalty takers for their clubs. I can remember Andriy Shevchenko one of the best strikers of his era missing one in the European cup final. It’s just nerves. All talk of not been warmed up & the age of the takers is just smoke & mirrors. It’s all about who can keep their cool on that long walk up & three of our lads didn’t.

One thing I will say that is controversial & it’s that the Italians were doped. I heard they flew home from England on Wednesday & then flew back the day before the game. They can’t see their families & they’re putting themselves at a massive COVID risk making a needless journey like that. Anyone who watched them against Spain & then watched them against us last night would notice a massive difference in energy levels. They were knackered & clinging on Tuesday & were very lucky to scrape through. Last night they looked like they could run all night. Doping’s always been a big part of Italian sport & I’m convinced they flew home for blood bags.

 

Agree with this 100%. He who dares win. Don’t mind him being defensive with his set up but his subs need to be earlier and braver. Strange calls with penalty takers although we don’t know if others didn’t volunteer.

 

Reminded me of the Norwegian expeditionary force. They volunteered.

 

Problem last night wasn't sitting on a lead as such. It's that the initial formation set us up for failure.

Italy's midfielders man for man are technically superior to ours - and then we surrendered even more control by putting rice and phillips against their three. This allowed them to control the midfield and then allowed their defenders to push up and overload the midfield even further.

I think fact we scored early masks the fact that the game would have probably settled into this pattern anyway because of the formations - nothing to do with us sitting back.

I know Southgate said he did this because he was worried about left hand side and wingers getting dragged back but I think he'll reflect that in hindsight this was the wrong decision. I think we should have matched them up and backed our wingers with their direct running to force Italy back.

At the end of the day - what did for us last night is same thing that's done for us in so many tournaments. Not having midfielders with the same technical quality as our opponents.

 

I'd have to say that there was little to fear from their midfield. We stood back and let them have 70% of the ball and two thirds of the pitch for over an hour and they created very little. I'd rather we'd picked an extra game changer and played four at the back but when the wingbacks were getting forward at the start we were totally on top and created three or four really good chances to make it 2-0. It was when those two stopped being wing backs that we yielded the midfield and invited the inevitable.

 

Spot on.

 

Our star striker who's the captain didn't even touch the ball in two hours the Italian penalty area. He went missing last night.

https://londonnewstime.com/harry-ka...-into-englands-euro-2020-final-defeat/347434/

 

After giving some of his tactics criticism in the past justifiably IMO I still think he’d the man for the job in the basis they’d no one else .
His personality is second to none and his man management is brilliant .
But all the talk before the match was the strength of our bench if we were under the cosh and he chose not to use it only for penalty’s .
I think going forward he’s still the man for the job even though I know he’ll frustrate the hell out of me with selections and subs but he gets the best out of the players he picks .