Anybody had a change of heart with Southgate, or still not impressed?

[i-Ram]

4 minutes ago, sage said:

Is that a fact?

Fact off.

[StockholmRam]

On 11/07/2021 at 12:30, uttoxram75 said:

He’s won me over. Always thought he was too negative but he has managed this group of players almost perfectly through this tournament.

I was gutted when we lost to Iceland but Southgate has learnt from that, he seems mentally stronger and the players are feeding off that, they trust him, he keeps the fringe players involved , the senior players respect him, for the first time in years there’s no cliques, it’s one team.

Win or lose tonight, he’s the man to take us into the next World Cup without a doubt.

 

Everything you have just said Utch. Perfect man for the job really in terms of man management, player culture, dealing with FA.

I hope we keep learning too. Id have rather lost in extra time throwing the kitchen sink at it and employing the whole attack line than go out on penalties.

[DCFC Kicks]

On 11/07/2021 at 09:22, Bob The Badger said:

I'm presuming some may have seeing as he was called everything from a yes-man to tactically naive prior to the Euros.

When I lived in t he US I didn't watch much Premiership and very few England games so I really didn't have much of an opinion and was on the fence.

But I was worried that he'd taken Boro down and not managed/coached at this level, but I thought the last WC looked promising.

Then I thought the open letter he wrote prior to the start of the tournament was utterly brilliant.

Of course that didn't mean he'd do well here, but it did show a real awareness of stuff other than the football, most importantly his players.

Then when I have seen interviews with other people who have known him from way back and who have talked about his approach to every level of the England organisation in terms of making it inclusive whilst giving autonomy for people to do what they do best, my admiration shot up.

That is how you lead rather than just manage.

He's also incredibly gutsy and not at all swayed by the media and fans clamouring.

Sir Alf was like that with Hurst over Greaves. He stuck to what he thought was the best thing to do even when millions disagreed.

To bring Grealish on and then take him off again required gonads of biblical proportions.

I also love that this team is almost egoless in an era where that is so unusual. That's not an accident.

So I've gone from ambivalence to thinking I don't care what happens today, I'll still be glad we have him going into the World Cup and I think this team will be a real force for years to come.

Anybody else changed their mind?

More importantly, anybody else still not impressed?

All those qualities are good but isn't the primary role of a manger to win games? As much as everyone likes him, I still think there are questions around his tactical ability. I think he got the tactics wrong against Italy and against Croatia in the WC semi-final. I think his lack of ability to react when the game swings the oppositions way is the most worrying. Look how Mancini reacted to going a goal down and how Southgate had no answers,

People can say "you can only beat what's in front of you" all they want, but the quality of the opposition we've been lucky to play against in the past two tournaments have played a massive part in how far we've gone in them, and people denying this are choosing to ignore it. 

Having said all that, overall he's done a good job and deserves to stay for the 2022 WC.

 

  

[Chris_Martin]

55 minutes ago, DCFClks said:

All those qualities are good but isn't the primary role of a manger to win games? As much as everyone likes him, I still think there are questions around his tactical ability. I think he got the tactics wrong against Italy and against Croatia in the WC semi-final.

  

I would argue the opposite. I think he got the tactics spot on, our wing backs were causing Italy a lot of problems and we had good control of the game. 

He just didn't seem to react quite quick enough in the 2nd half when Italy changed. 

[DCFC Kicks]

3 hours ago, Chris_Martin said:

I would argue the opposite. I think he got the tactics spot on, our wing backs were causing Italy a lot of problems and we had good control of the game. 

He just didn't seem to react quite quick enough in the 2nd half when Italy changed. 

England didn't really trouble there defence at all after the goal, even when we eventually changed it didn't work. 

[Chris_Martin]

30 minutes ago, DCFClks said:

England didn't really trouble there defence at all after the goal, even when we eventually changed it didn't work. 

Agreed we didn't trouble them much after the goal, but you cant say we weren't in control 1st half though. It's tournament football, very cagey, teams don't usually take risks when they're in front.

Yes it didn't really work after we changed system, but admittedly it was too late then, they had already scored. 

[DCFC Kicks]

2 hours ago, Chris_Martin said:

Agreed we didn't trouble them much after the goal, but you cant say we weren't in control 1st half though. It's tournament football, very cagey, teams don't usually take risks when they're in front.

Yes it didn't really work after we changed system, but admittedly it was too late then, they had already scored. 

So you're agreeing with me that he got the tactics wrong then?

 

also we haven't even mentioned the penalty takers yet...

Edited July 17, 2021 by DCFClks

[Chris_Martin]

1 hour ago, DCFClks said:

So you're agreeing with me that he got the tactics wrong then?

 

also we haven't even mentioned the penalty takers yet...

no.