So my team against the Dutch
Pickford, Konsa, Stones, Guehi, Saka, Mainoo, Rice, Bellingham, Shaw, Toney, Watkins
No Walker, No Trippier, No Foden, No Kane (he’s still a top striker, but wants to get into the box less than Simon Cowell)
Think Palmer is better as impact substitute
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 08-07-2024 at 08:51 AM.
Oh Southgate's been mega-lucky no argument about that, I said it not so far up this thread, England have had incredibly easy runs in these tournamentsOriginally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
so are you playing us with two up front or is one behind the lead striker?
Bit of a, bit of b.
Of course, before Southgate we failed to get out of the group in 2014 and lost to Iceland in 2016, so...
There's no doubt there's been some luck but I'd suggest you could say that about any manager. And there's no doubt we were lucky with the late goal against Slovakia. Overall I don't think we've been lucky in this tournament though. We've not played any proper teams yet though - although the Swiss weren't bad against an admittedly poor Italy. My main criticism would be how dull we've been.
It’s hard to really argue against the fact that Southgate has had some fortunate draws which has made us favourites to go deep into tournaments. The one time we faced a top side prior to the semis was France in Qatar and we bowed out. So I think people are right to mention luck and an inability to beat big teams.
I don’t think he needs to be completely shit on though, getting to semi finals used to be dreamland stuff for us but now it’s pretty much a bare minimum expectation. We need a new coach but he’s overseen a solid transformation with England. Better coaches than him have failed quite spectacularly in the past with arguably better players too.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 08-07-2024 at 11:21 AM.
I don’t think anyone is shitting on him, the frustration is more with a play it safe FA that failed to move him on after the last World Cup. Plus I never single out Southgate, I think Deschamps is a pretty lousy French coach given the obscene talent he’s had to work with the past ten years
I think Roberto Martinez is a complete fraud, Koeman is probably frustrated that his Dutch team aren’t as negative and dirty as he usually sets his teams out to play and so forth
Yes among the 'big' teams it's hard to find many managers that are positive although Nagelsman and in particular de la Fuente should get some plaudits
Coaches generally don’t like international management. What you then have is people that have already won everything that matters at club level and are winding down their careers, Both Spain and Italy won world cups with Vicente Del Bosque and Marcello Lippi respectively.
The other alternative is the insider who has been part of overhauling the system like a Joachim Low. Southgate is an inside man in many respects because he was coach of the under 21s, but of course he’s not really an innovator.
Was reading a lot about Capello’s time as coach. And there’s a lot of parallels between him and Wenger in the early days in the way he tried to change the culture. In his case the inter-club rivalries and cliques as well as the diet. I think that works at club level when you’re with the players day in day out for nine months. But when you have a group of players for maybe a month during international tournaments, all they get is resentment towards this spiky Italian dude who barely understands the language being this austere, dictatorial figure.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote