Anyone criticising Southgate is an idiot. It's that simple.
I don't think anyone has said that. People should feel free to criticise but expect people to challenge that criticism where it is deemed not fair.
For me, England have always been held to a higher standard than any club side, and that extends to our manager, whoever that is. For example, compare these extracts from the BBC match reports on two 2-0 home wins for England v Ukraine and Man City v Newcastle:
"England had laboured for 37 minutes in the face of a well-organised Ukraine" and "Their performances have not been perfect by any means but the results are the ideal foundations for progress in a group also containing Malta and North Macedonia."
"Foden struck after 15 minutes, gliding in from the right and holding off two challenges before seeing his shot deflected home off Sven Botman.
Newcastle responded well and were causing plenty of problems until City substitute Bernardo Silva slotted home to put the game out of their reach midway through the second half."
Why do England's performances have to be perfect? No other team delivers perfect performances week in week out. And so what if we struggled to breakdown a team with everyone behind the ball? Ukraine are no mugs and a game of football is 90 minutes - you don't get bonus points for scoring earlier! Newcastle caused Man City far more problems than Ukraine caused England, and despite the same result England had far more attempts and attempts on target than Man City in their game, yet no one was calling Pep a negative manager.
It seems some people just have impossible standards for England. If we fall short in a tight final against Italy or a quarter-final against France, it's because Southgate is a poor manager. Yet there is no such judgement against Pep Guardiola when they lose in the Champions League Final to Chelsea (without scoring after deciding to play without a holding midfielder) or get knocked out in the QF by inferior sides such as Spurs, Lyon or Liverpool. And as for throwing away a 2 goal lead in injury time against Real Madrid last season, if Southgate ever does the equivalent as manager of England, I shudder to think how some lunatics would react. Top managers like Pep are allowed to make mistakes, but it seems that Southgate isn't.
That's the nub of the problem for me Nero - there's no balance or nuance. It's simply a case of if England don't win, it's because of Southgate and if we do win, it's in spite of Southgate and his negative football, despite all evidence showing that we are consistently amongst the winning most and highest scoring teams in Europe over the past 6 years.