kevinhectoring

Siouthgate should be managing the England’s women’s team. He could lecture them empathetically on what they feel about the press coverage, the crowd reactions, the nation’s expectations and they would listen attentively and respond. He does that with the men and they think he’s weird and confusing 

Your right who wants a purist like Wenger and his 3x Premier League titles 1x French League titles 7 x FA Cup winners  1x French Cup winners 7x English Super Cup winners 1x Japanese Cup winners whilst playing scintillating football and rising hundreds of millions for his club when we have Warne. 

I wonder how people will feel when we're top at Christmas and Paul Warne leaves to take the Everton job?

Nicely put AW. Of course he didn’t want to lose!!  
But the reason he chose them was in part because he wanted them (not other teammates) to score. The reason he believed they would indeed score is the more complicated aspect…
(All of this reflects btw that Southgate is a deeply decent man ( albeit, as we all know, a one dimensional football manager). )

The racial abuse of black players and Sterling in particular in the run up was well documented and appalling. If you want to know how Southgate felt about it, go back and re-read the Dear England letter. It’s a letter about many things but I believe the reason he wrote it was to deal head on with the issue of racism. I think he felt deeply for the players who suffered - Sterling especially. 

The choice of Rashford, Saka and Sancho as penalty takers was all part of this and was an appalling decision. He had experienced players on the pitch and he chose three inexperienced penalty takers, none of them famed strikers of a dead ball, one a  player who only ever hits a ball sweetly if it’s moving, the second a player who had had a really lousy game and the third a player who had only just gone onto the pitch in the final of a major international tournament. To put it in Derby terms, 3 Kamil Jozwiaks.  It was madness. It reflected how much he believed in them, how much he wanted them to be heroes, how much he wanted to silence the racists. And in footballing terms, utterly feckless. And the result: a mountain of abuse on twitter for the hapless triumvirate. Oh and we lost.  
 
Feckless wokeism 
 

So up to 4 get into them teams, that's a pretty good platform to be honest. Look at it the other way round and on paper and you'd probably come to the same conclusion, France for example looked pretty inefficient without their talisman last night.
For me it's not about the best players, but the best team. We seem to be playing (imo) too many out of position, experimenting at the stage seems strange to me. That said, it's not an easy job and whatever GS does will get criticism, we are still top of the group and unbeaten and the stick he is facing is ridiculous.

Wait a sec here. As a french supporter, I' ll also have Kane, Palmer and Saka , Eze and Rice, thank you very much, no questions asked. You can have Dembele, Thuram, Koman and I ll throw a young inexperienced lad who looks deceptively slow, Giroud.
 

Not sure it’s controversial but….
England would be better if Bellingham played in a deeper role as he has done for Real for a lot of the season.  
Playing next to Declan Rice would make his game there a breeze. 

This would mean Foden playing in his preferred role as a 10 and an actual left winger in either Palmer or Gordon making England a much more balanced team. 

I think under DC we will be run so as to minimise losses. And to the extent there are losses I think they’ll be funded by equity or similar, I don’t think DC will want the club amassing debt. 

Nicely put AW. Of course he didn’t want to lose!!  
But the reason he chose them was in part because he wanted them (not other teammates) to score. The reason he believed they would indeed score is the more complicated aspect…
(All of this reflects btw that Southgate is a deeply decent man ( albeit, as we all know, a one dimensional football manager). )

The racial abuse of black players and Sterling in particular in the run up was well documented and appalling. If you want to know how Southgate felt about it, go back and re-read the Dear England letter. It’s a letter about many things but I believe the reason he wrote it was to deal head on with the issue of racism. I think he felt deeply for the players who suffered - Sterling especially. 

The choice of Rashford, Saka and Sancho as penalty takers was all part of this and was an appalling decision. He had experienced players on the pitch and he chose three inexperienced penalty takers, none of them famed strikers of a dead ball, one a  player who only ever hits a ball sweetly if it’s moving, the second a player who had had a really lousy game and the third a player who had only just gone onto the pitch in the final of a major international tournament. To put it in Derby terms, 3 Kamil Jozwiaks.  It was madness. It reflected how much he believed in them, how much he wanted them to be heroes, how much he wanted to silence the racists. And in footballing terms, utterly feckless. And the result: a mountain of abuse on twitter for the hapless triumvirate. Oh and we lost.  
 
Feckless wokeism 
 

They have a confusing family tree that family  

Indeed, but I think, regardless of what league and even if someone doesn’t like him, our manager has shown he’s got a reasonable grasp of the basics. It’s pre season right now so those other concerns are somehow higher up the worry rankings I suppose 

To me, we really should have been 3 up at HT. As it was it was just the one. 2nd half Italy came out with a changed formation and tactics. Having been 2nd best all 1st half, they ruled the roost. That was obvious from the start of the 2nd half. 5 minutes in, Southgate should have changed tactics and/or personnel to counter the Italian changes. He didn't. We continued to struggle against the change and it went to penalties. That failure to change tack when necessary is what cost us, IMO.

Overall I think the manager is usually the single most important factor 

I would be very surprised - and not a little worried -  if DC believes this. Indeed I have the impression from PW’s comments that his main problem in the transfer market is lack of financial firepower 
Most of DC’s family wealth is truly family money and I think he is a responsible custodian of it for future generations. MM made his own fortune and did what he wanted with it. He has many, but DC does not have that luxury 

Never suggested it applies to many posters - my view is that it extends to no more than 4 or 5 on the forum.

Perhaps this is what you want to believe, I don’t know.  Anyway, I doubt it’s true of many posters. 

If Warne got us into the PL, he’d be my hero. 

I disliked him for his first season, quite a lot. Now much less. And (this might confuse you): I now think he was probably a good appointment, once the decision was taken that LR should go and a very good appointment from a cultural point of view. But I don’t think he’s the guy we want managing us in the championship. 
 
I hope he’ll make me change my mind 🙂   If he does, I will haha 

I would be very surprised - and not a little worried -  if DC believes this. Indeed I have the impression from PW’s comments that his main problem in the transfer market is lack of financial firepower 
Most of DC’s family wealth is truly family money and I think he is a responsible custodian of it for future generations. MM made his own fortune and did what he wanted with it. He has many, but DC does not have that luxury 

Yep,  that was deliberate 😀 
Not about 'the best',  just who made you proud, made you want to watch, who you hoped would have a good game,  who you gave latitude to have a poor game....would be your poster on the wall, make you smile.
 

They have a confusing family tree that family  

Perhaps this is what you want to believe, I don’t know.  Anyway, I doubt it’s true of many posters. 

If Warne got us into the PL, he’d be my hero. 

I disliked him for his first season, quite a lot. Now much less. And (this might confuse you): I now think he was probably a good appointment, once the decision was taken that LR should go and a very good appointment from a cultural point of view. But I don’t think he’s the guy we want managing us in the championship. 
 
I hope he’ll make me change my mind 🙂   If he does, I will haha 

One man's financial constraints is another man's prudent stewardship 

The point of him saying that we were inconsistent was what I was referring to as mental. When from October onwards we accumulated more points than anyone in the league.

We could all have stayed in bed, including the players, and we would still have gone up automatically 😂

People can have opposing views, that’s the point, what is odd is that more and more when people with an opposed view are engaged in dialogue accusations of “bullying”, “piling on”, “disrespect” and the like are being thrown around quite quickly. 
What it seems at the moment is people want to be able to share their view and if it’s contradicted by someone else’s view that can’t possibly be considered or discussed. So essentially we’re getting to the point of each of us just making a statement of our own opinions and views and everyone in response just going “ok, that’s that persons view, better not comment or discuss it further”.
I’ve always considered myself to be mostly respectful of everyone’s right to a view or opinion even if I don’t necessarily share or respect the opinion itself (a subtle difference that I uphold, everyone can have an opinion but if I think that opinion is questionable I don’t automatically have to respect it….just the persons right to voice it). However in the last couple of days when I’ve engaged in what felt perfectly respectful dialogue to me I’ve then been subject to what I felt were disproportionate accusations. I’m essentially at a point where I don’t get the etiquette on here anymore, is it ok to have an opposing view to someone or not? Will I upset or offend someone if I counter their views with my own? Or ask open questions to better understand their view? The way I see it provided there’s no personal attacks or name calling, if you’re going to post an opinion that in all likelihood will raise some debate then you should expect some dialogue in return….isn’t that the idea?

You're going to eat the manager? Okay.