Can you admit that Southgate is doing a great job yet?

WeeGord said:
We'd beaten Scotland, demolished the Dutch and beaten Spain on pens, though admittedly we had our share of luck that game.
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Drew in a dull game vs an average Swiss side, beat a mediocre scotland team but of course they do raise their game.

We were a bit lucky though 1-0 up, they hit the post, then they miss a penalty and we go down the other end and score. Could easily have been different.

Holland, yes, we blew them away.

Spain, they should have beaten us to be honest, they fluffed their lines a couple of times

Germany, we were unlucky.

Our memory is usually focused on two key things, a great performance vs Netherlands, and Gazzas studs not being long enough vs the Germans. But that hides some of the deficencies of that tournament.

Great performance: Netherlands
Good performances: Scotland, Germany
Poor performances: Switzerland
Rank bad: Spain
 
BoroMart said:
Drew in a dull game vs an average Swiss side, beat a mediocre scotland team but of course they do raise their game.

We were a bit lucky though 1-0 up, they hit the post, then they miss a penalty and we go down the other end and score. Could easily have been different.

Holland, yes, we blew them away.

Spain, they should have beaten us to be honest, they fluffed their lines a couple of times

Germany, we were unlucky.

Our memory is usually focused on two key things, a great performance vs Netherlands, and Gazzas studs not being long enough vs the Germans. But that hides some of the deficencies of that tournament.

Great performance: Netherlands
Good performances: Scotland, Germany
Poor performances: Switzerland
Rank bad: Spain
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In tournament football there is very, very rarely a team the dominates from the outset and it on top form throughout the tournament. I'm not arguing that it was a superb tournament for us and that we were the best team there, but then the same could be said of all the teams at the tournament.

The reality is that despite that close shave against Spain where we rode our luck against a better team, we got to the Semi's and when we were there were very unlucky ourselves.

Until recent years under Southgate we'd not come close to replicating that overall enthusiasm and optimism that we *might* actually win something. We probably *should* have been in the mix at the business end of tournaments in the Sven years but it didn't happen.
 
We did go into the Euro 96 short on competitive football as we'd failed miserably to qualify for the 94 world cup and as hosts we didn't have to qualify. So we were perhaps not quite sharp enough in that opening game.
 
Lefty said:
We did go into the Euro 96 short on competitive football as we'd failed miserably to qualify for the 94 world cup and as hosts we didn't have to qualify. So we were perhaps not quite sharp enough in that opening game.
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I remember that claim, I don’t entirely but into it though, those players had played plenty of high intensity meaningful games at club level
 
Well, it might have changed in the last decade, but before that most tournaments started with iffy performances from all the fancied teams. Must be a reason for that. We had the longest toughest domestic seasons too.

Venables was good.

Robson was good.

Southgate is as good, perhaps better.

All the rest not as good.
 
Lefty said:
Well, it might have changed in the last decade, but before that most tournaments started with iffy performances from all the fancied teams. Must be a reason for that. We had the longest toughest domestic seasons too.

Venables was good.

Robson was good.

Southgate is as good, perhaps better.

All the rest not as good.
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I'm not sure about a couple of the claims there. Robson was lucky that his first choice midfielder was banned, his first choice striker poor and his skipper injured or we may not have got out of the group stage in '86 and he would have been gone.

Venables had a poor record as England manager, not even in the top ten as far as win ratios go.

I agree that Southgate has been better than both but has, for me, a far better set of players to choose from. He's second as far as win ratios go, separating Capello in first from Ramsey in third.
 
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