I take it all back. Southgate is a legend. We’ve just drawn 1-1 to North Macedonia thanks to an own-goal, and when looking to force a winner he chose to bring on Marcus Rashford who’s form wouldn’t get him in the Barnsley team, and the defence-unlocking midfield dynamo that is Kalvin Phillips. Two shots on target. In 90+ minutes against North Macedonia, 75% possession - achieving nothing. Gareth Ball. I’ll await the case for his defence. It’ll be along in a minute.
In his defence it’s quite an achievement to get some of the best attacking talent on the planet playing like Max Watters on an off day.
I’ve never been a big fan because of this. He gets nowhere near the amount of goals / assists a player of his talent should. Seems more concerned with looking pretty on the ball & not giving it away than effecting the game.
Absolutely pissed the group. Qualified with two games to spare. Last two games were **** but were always going to be as dead rubbers. Not interested in friendlies or games that are effectively friendlies as we were already through. He should rightfully be judged on how the tournament goes.
Featured in 7 league games out of 12 for united. Tried there best to offload him in the summer. Bloke always got a error in him. Even when he was totally out of form he was still getting picked for England.
As I watched the England matches this weekend, I was reminded of the words of one of our ex-players: "The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."
That's true, he's definitely not been in good form previously but right now he is in good form for Man Utd. That was my only point, that it's wrong to say he's currently out of form.
They did beat Italy last year and knock them out of the World Cup qualifier playoffs so I think people ought to be a bit less Wednesday-esque. Yeah not a great result but hey ho.