Gareth Southgate

[Ghost of Clough]

3 hours ago, Alpha said:

Even if we lose, which we won't, people should have some pride and confidence in supporting England again.

They're not Sven's superstars or guys who pick up conveniently timed injuries. God, how often did we hear we have the best LB  CB CM,RM,ST in the world over recent years?

These are wonderful misfits and failure stories. Even the two main stars are Harry Kane who's path to the top wasn't straight forward and even now remains trophyless. And Raheem Sterling... the guy that has to apologise for spending his money, having a tattoo and not being the English answer to Messi, Ronaldo etc. How can Raheem Sterling ever be allowed to relax.

It's now actually possible to be a top 4 English player and not be picked. You can lose your place to players who were Championship when England lost in the World Cup.

If we lose Sunday then we've still had success. Well, unless you really trying to punish yourself. 

One member of the England squad was even on the losing side of the U18 League Final 2 years ago

[FlyBritishMidland]

5 hours ago, Alpha said:

Even if we lose, which we won't, people should have some pride and confidence in supporting England again.

They're not Sven's superstars or guys who pick up conveniently timed injuries. God, how often did we hear we have the best LB  CB CM,RM,ST in the world over recent years?

These are wonderful misfits and failure stories. Even the two main stars are Harry Kane who's path to the top wasn't straight forward and even now remains trophyless. And Raheem Sterling... the guy that has to apologise for spending his money, having a tattoo and not being the English answer to Messi, Ronaldo etc. How can Raheem Sterling ever be allowed to relax.

It's now actually possible to be a top 4 English player and not be picked. You can lose your place to players who were Championship when England lost in the World Cup.

If we lose Sunday then we've still had success. Well, unless you really trying to punish yourself. 

Spot on @Alpha.  Southgate has a squad where everyone knows they have a chance of playing.  He picks the best team for each match.  Sven picked the best players regardless and that doesn’t always make the best team.  Forgetting the Nations League, we’ve been to the Semi-Final or Final six times in our history - Sir Alf had two and so does Southgate.  That’s no mean feat.

For the first time in many years we have a team we can be proud of.

[MuespachRam]

6 hours ago, richinspain said:

Liverpool won the league thirty two ish seasons ago, now that is a fact.

Corrected It for you…

[SKRam]

21 hours ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

Spot on @Alpha.  Southgate has a squad where everyone knows they have a chance of playing.  He picks the best team for each match.  Sven picked the best players regardless and that doesn’t always make the best team.  Forgetting the Nations League, we’ve been to the Semi-Final or Final six times in our history - Sir Alf had two and so does Southgate.  That’s no mean feat.

For the first time in many years we have a team we can be proud of.

My only issue is why Foden on so late. Waiting two minutes into ET to bring him on. He is a stunning player and I really really hope he starts Sunday. I’m not biased being a Stockport lad at all……well just a little then. 

[Pearl Ram]

What I do admire about Southgate is his management of this tournament. 

What I mean by that is we have seen no pictures of wags for instance, I saw a post by Dark Fruits earlier in this thread quoting the greats from earlier tournaments, your Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney & Ferdinand etc and they were fantastic footballers but man, what a circus they brought to the party.

Yesterday I read about one wag taking the seat of someone else so she could be behind another, higher profile wag, to ensure she would be in any photographs the paparazzi used. I mean really. ?

Southgate has seen to it there have been no such distractions. I bet Sven wishes he’d managed things differently at the World Cup in Japan. I know it could be argued his squad contained higher profile names than Southgate’s but I remember Beckham entering a press conference he wasn’t involved in to interrupt Eriksson mid speech which to me undermined the manager. That was his weakness, he let the big names run the show.

Southgate has no publicity seeking twits in his squad which I think has helped him immensely. I do have reservations about certain stuff, playing style-wise but hey, look where he’s got us and my gung ho preference would probably see the players on their holidays by now and not preparing for a major final so I must concede he knows a damn site better than me but I just wanted to acknowledge his management is not just about winning games and while he’s doing well on that front, everything else he’s doing from selecting a good backroom team to keeping the players occupied between games seems to be spot on an’ all.

Best of luck to him and his team tomorrow, I think a win would go a long way to giving the nation a much need boost. 

[Alph]

I forgot about the WAGs thing. So much publicity around what they were doing. 

[Pearl Ram]

I’m convinced it was a distraction. I know I’m going to come across as an old fart  (?) but I think the group of players we took to Japan in particular had too much input into how things were going to be and Southgate deserves credit for saying “and this is how it’s going to be.”

[Van der MoodHoover]

The Wags thing was Germany 2006 wc. Japan was pretty restrained and no high jinks. 

It was the year of beckhans metatarsal, sleeping with his foot in an oxygen tent to speed healing etc

Germany was the WC I remember sven making some nonsense comment about the squad being "11% fitter than 2002".

[Pearl Ram]

It appears I got me World Cups mixed up but the case still stand from my point of view, no baalocks, no early exit.

[TigerTedd]

2 hours ago, Pearl Ram said:

What I do admire about Southgate is his management of this tournament. 

What I mean by that is we have seen no pictures of wags for instance, I saw a post by Dark Fruits earlier in this thread quoting the greats from earlier tournaments, your Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney & Ferdinand etc and they were fantastic footballers but man, what a circus they brought to the party.

Yesterday I read about one wag taking the seat of someone else so she could be behind another, higher profile wag, to ensure she would be in any photographs the paparazzi used. I mean really. ?

Southgate has seen to it there have been no such distractions. I bet Sven wishes he’d managed things differently at the World Cup in Japan. I know it could be argued his squad contained higher profile names than Southgate’s but I remember Beckham entering a press conference he wasn’t involved in to interrupt Eriksson mid speech which to me undermined the manager. That was his weakness, he let the big names run the show.

Southgate has no publicity seeking twits in his squad which I think has helped him immensely. I do have reservations about certain stuff, playing style-wise but hey, look where he’s got us and my gung ho preference would probably see the players on their holidays by now and not preparing for a major final so I must concede he knows a damn site better than me but I just wanted to acknowledge his management is not just about winning games and while he’s doing well on that front, everything else he’s doing from selecting a good backroom team to keeping the players occupied between games seems to be spot on an’ all.

Best of luck to him and his team tomorrow, I think a win would go a long way to giving the nation a much need boost. 

I couldn’t even name a wag now. There’s no Victoria’s or Colleens. Sterling did celebrate with his son though. Such a media whore. 

I think this is the closest thing we get in modern football to a group of good old fashioned players for whom the football comes first, and the sponsorships and contracts and media circus cine a distant second. 

hopefully other footballers Will take note and see this as a template to long term success. 

[maxjam]

 

[DCFC Kicks]

Southgate has been the most lucky manager in England's history. We will never have an easier route in a tournament than we have the last two. He's very media/corporate friendly, which is why he'll get another contract, but he's just not good enough tactically. Mancini isn't the best manager in the world but he's still good and he's won things before. What are Southgate's past credentials? Italy changed formation and Southgate had no answers, terrible subs at the wrong time. Germany are the only top team we've beat in the past two tournaments. I'd like to see someone like Graham Potter as England manager.

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

We will never have an easier route in a tournament than we have the last two.

This sentence instantly contradicts himself. If you thought we’d never have an easier route than last time, and then we got an even easier route this time. Just 3 years later. 

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

Germany are the only top team we've beat in the past two tournaments.

Apart from the World Cup finalists who beat us 3 years ago.

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

Southgate has been the most lucky manager in England's history. We will never have an easier route in a tournament than we have the last two. He's very media/corporate friendly, which is why he'll get another contract, but he's just not good enough tactically. Mancini isn't the best manager in the world but he's still good and he's won things before. What are Southgate's past credentials? Italy changed formation and Southgate had no answers, terrible subs at the wrong time. Germany are the only top team we've beat in the past two tournaments. I'd like to see someone like Graham Potter as England manager.

Southgate's credentials currently stands as 2 semi finals and a final from his first 3 tournaments. 

What are Graham Potter's credentials?

[DCFC Kicks]

15 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

Apart from the World Cup finalists who beat us 3 years ago.

Croatia are no where near the team they were 3 years ago, 4 key players retired. Anyway that would still only be 2 top teams beaten in 2 tournaments

15 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

This sentence instantly contradicts himself. If you thought we’d never have an easier route than last time, and then we got an even easier route this time. Just 3 years later. 

I think you read my post wrong. The last 2 tournaments have been England's luckiest in there history in terms of teams played and they happened to be back to back both with Southgate in charge.

[DCFC Kicks]

11 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Southgate's credentials currently stands as 2 semi finals and a final from his first 3 tournaments. 

What are Graham Potter's credentials?

Yes he's managed to get to a final and semi-final whilst only having to beat one (possibly two) top team(s) over two tournaments, how lucky can you get? I honestly think Sven could have done just as good, if not better than Southgate had he had the same opponents. 

Potters clearly a very good modern tactical coach who's already being linked to top teams. Why do England always seem to hire managers whose tactics are already 10 years out of date?

[AndyinLiverpool]

2 minutes ago, DCFClks said:

Yes he's managed to get to a final and semi-final whilst only having to beat one (possibly two) top team(s) over two tournaments, how lucky can you get? I honestly think Sven could have done just as good, if not better than Southgate had he had the same opponents. 

Potters clearly a very good modern tactical coach who's already being linked to top teams. Why do England always seem to hire managers whose tactics are already 10 years out of date?

Blah blah blah, opposition not very good, blah blah.

Why is it that when something nice happens to England, it's not down to their own efforts and skill but purely down to the weakness of the opposition?

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

Southgate has been the most lucky manager in England's history. We will never have an easier route in a tournament than we have the last two. He's very media/corporate friendly, which is why he'll get another contract, but he's just not good enough tactically. Mancini isn't the best manager in the world but he's still good and he's won things before. What are Southgate's past credentials? Italy changed formation and Southgate had no answers, terrible subs at the wrong time. Germany are the only top team we've beat in the past two tournaments. I'd like to see someone like Graham Potter as England manager.

Can’t agree with this. Southgate got England playing together, defensively strong (hardly conceded any goals). Didn’t lose a match apart from penalties. Managed his team well. Have had no issue with his subs apart from I thought yesterday he could have brought on players earlier. Don’t care what his past credentials now, England have achieved semi finals then finals at two biggest tournaments. Also, England beat Croatia who were finalists in the word cup and Denmark who scored 4 past a couple of sides and really raised their game. Italy were probably the best team in the whole tournament. 

[MuespachRam]

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

Southgate has been the most lucky manager in England's history. We will never have an easier route in a tournament than we have the last two. He's very media/corporate friendly, which is why he'll get another contract, but he's just not good enough tactically. Mancini isn't the best manager in the world but he's still good and he's won things before. What are Southgate's past credentials? Italy changed formation and Southgate had no answers, terrible subs at the wrong time. Germany are the only top team we've beat in the past two tournaments. I'd like to see someone like Graham Potter as England manager.

The best manager we have ever had in your lifetime, by miles and miles. 
 

Posts like yours are so predictable….we were half the width of a goalpost from winning The whole thing last night, you do realise that don’t you…? 

[Kennington Ram]

49 minutes ago, DCFClks said:

Yes he's managed to get to a final and semi-final whilst only having to beat one (possibly two) top team(s) over two tournaments, how lucky can you get? I honestly think Sven could have done just as good, if not better than Southgate had he had the same opponents. 

Potters clearly a very good modern tactical coach who's already being linked to top teams. Why do England always seem to hire managers whose tactics are already 10 years out of date?

In tournaments, you make your own luck and this thing about easy runs is total rubbish. We qualified well, achieved a great seeding, and then played well against our group without serious injuries or overexertion. You win the 'easy' run by earning it.

Do you remember when we played the US, Algeria and Slovenia in 2010, and I think The Sun had the headline "EASY"?

Well, we finished second to the US and then came up against Germany immediately. The US played Ghana.