It’s time to get Sir Gareth back.
- Thread starter sambaDTR
- Start date
Jim Irvine
Member
Yes probable will get a job at the FA that just about says everything about him.
Scrote
Well-known member
The Italy game turned on the late foul against Saka by Chiellini. No guarantee we'd have scored but the ending could have been very different. Fine margins.
Should have been a red too...
Merrykoala
Well-known member
I'm another one that doesn't get the hate of Southgate. Best guess is people hate being wrong. Most assumed he wouldn't last long after the Big Sam departure and couldn't eat the humble pie when he proved them wrong. We're a country of miserable ***** who whinge when people we don't like do good things.
If some puppet like Harry Redknapp had achieved a quarter of what Southgate did people would be claiming he's the best England manager ever.
If some puppet like Harry Redknapp had achieved a quarter of what Southgate did people would be claiming he's the best England manager ever.
S7DiscoDown
Well-known member
We'd need at least 4 RIght backs 
Paterson
Well-known member
He deserves credit for bringing a lot of those players in at ages when previously they wouldn't have been given an opportunity.
The Card Cheat
Well-known member
You preferred it under Hodgson when we’re finishing bottom of our group and drawing 0-0 with Costa Rica, or absolutely stinking the place out in 2010 under Capello, how’s about Graham Taylor in 92 playing Carlton Palmer and Dennis Wise in midfield? That was more interesting than reaching World Cup Semi Finals and European Championship finals and scoring more goals than any England team have ever done in tournaments before?
Ok.
Don’t give me the “probably the best team” nonsense either, he reached a World Cup semi final with a midfield of Henderson, Dele Ali and Jessse Lingard. Previous managers got nowhere near that with Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard.
festa5
Well-known member
Or indeed a penalty shootout.
I mean, you might as well flip a coin. He prepared us well for shootouts, but it's still largely a lottery.
The very finest of margins. Wins that and everyone sees him very differently. Yet it's largely just luck.
festa5
Well-known member
Definitely the most overrated England side of recent years.
A bunch of very good attacking midfielders does not = the best side in decades.
The Card Cheat
Well-known member
Saying random rubbish doesn’t make it true.
It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact that Southgate is Englands most successful manager of the last 50 years.
We went from winning zero knockout games in the 5 tournaments before him, to winning 9 in 4 tournaments with him.
Jim Irvine
Member
Southgate is one of those managers that people justify with statistics but makes a game which is supposed to be entertaining into a boring drab affair without ever giving a thought to the paying public.
The Card Cheat
Well-known member
Did he make it a drab affair when his England team played Senegal and battered them 3-0? Maybe you prefer the great entertainment England provided tonight.
Redlips
Well-known member
Who Southgate beat in knock out games…
When it really mattered lost to Croatia, Italy, France and Spain.
A lucky manager.
- Colombia (2018 World Cup, Round of 16, on penalties)
- Sweden (2018 World Cup, Quarter-final)
- Germany (Euro 2020, Round of 16)
- Ukraine (Euro 2020, Quarter-final)
- Denmark (Euro 2020, Semi-final, after extra time)
- Senegal (2022 World Cup, Round of 16)
- Slovakia (Euro 2024, Round of 16)
When it really mattered lost to Croatia, Italy, France and Spain.
A lucky manager.
The Card Cheat
Well-known member
Expecting to beat and actually beating are massively different. That’s why previous managers failed to beat USA, Algeria, Costa Rica, Slovakia, Iceland in tournaments. That’s why we’ve just been stuffed by Senegal at home.
That’s why the previous 12 managers won less knockout games in 55 years than Southgate won in 7 years.
We also got favourable draws because we either won our groups or were in a position to decide our own destiny, nothing to do with luck.
Whether people can grasp it or not, the period Southgate was manager was the golden age to be an England fan.
Jonathan
Well-known member
Tbf, also the types of teams I would have previously expected England to lose to in the round of 16 or quarter finals previously. Feel like England have a ***** recor against teams like Sweden or teams of that level.
theredrooster
Well-known member
Ahh yes, those well known footballing minnows Germany. Also, England's total knock out tournament success was 6 wins between 1967 and 2016 (all managers combined). Under Southgate in a matter of a few years he had clocked up 7 knock out tournament wins. So no, winning those games listed above certainly wasn't expected by anyone with our historical record.
However by the end of his reign Southgate had reversed a long standing trend of underachievement and mediocrity and instilled a winning mentality with players actually seeming to enjoy playing for England without feeling under pressure as in previous regimes. As fans we also came to expect to win knock out matches and go deep into tournaments by reaching the latter stages. Southgate helped change everyone's mindset.
There are no easy games in International knock out football and if anything I'd argue Southgate was a bit unlucky as a manager (penalty shoot out loss, Saka sending off that should have been, defeat against France when we were the better side etc).
YouAreMyBoro
Active member
This is a great post.
YouAreMyBoro
Active member
Hang on, Cole, Ferdinand, Gary Neville,Sol Campbell in defence, Beckham, Owen, Rooney.
These players were winning leagues, champions leagues etc. one hundred percent some of the best individuals in the last sixty years and nearly every one would have walked into a Southgate squad.
Could Gareth have done it with those players, who knows, but it's silly to suggest the players he has at his disposal were considered golden era when he took he job.