England Squad

Defence looks poor but apart from that…!

Been some interesting decisions by the manager in terms of who he has and has not called up.

Excited for the summer!
 
SlowDownDerek said:
I'm not saying it's necessarily good enough I'm saying it's better than we ever done before in my lifetime. We tried the pep and Klopp of their day previously and they did worse than Southgate. We can all declare that someone else would have won but nobody else ever got close.

I want to win something but in the absence of that I'll take a view on how well we did and one thing you can say about Southgate is he hasn't been "fucking useless" he's been pretty good on the whole even if that's not been good enough to win anything.
Click to expand...
You see when I think of Southgate, I just want to yawn.
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
We didn't have a go we levelled, missed a pen then shat ourselves and lost like every other time. That France Argentina final, good game but they were very beatable. Just like Italy and Croatia. In 2002 that was literally the best ever Brazil team and our golden gen got them in quarters instead of Turkey.
Click to expand...
Anyone claiming Brazil 2002 was their best ever team is at best confused. The 1982 squad was better and won nothing. They had quite a few even better before that too!

It's like football only started in the 90s again.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
I honestly don't know what planet these people live on. Southgate has got closer than any manager in nearly 70 years and we've got people declaring him a serial loser. England fans apparently. Have they been watching a different England team to me all of these years. There are many England supporters who don't deserve any success.
Click to expand...
There is no doubting or disputing the job Southgate did in rebuilding from a pretty dark place, towards the end of Capello, through Hodgson years, and let's not forget the Allardyce incident! Southgate has brought us lightyears ahead of that and that holds my respect.

My concern is whether he can make full use of the quality and potential now at our disposal, when it comes to the sharp end of competitions when we meet nations with equal or more quality. When I think back on the Croatia, Italy and France games, they all could have been handled better.

It's a small sample size I know which contributes to the pressure on those occasions, and you make a fair point that a slice of luck comes into those games.

I'm also aware the next question on my trail of thought would be 'who would do better' as with any debate over a manager. Beyond my bias for Eddie, I'm not exactly flush with names. Potter seems to get a lot of media praise but I'm not bought into it yet. Mourinho would be the antithesis of Southgate's man management.

One specific nitpick, I also don't get Southgate's ongoing aversion to picking Fikayo Tomori given we need CBs and he starts every week for Milan consistently in the top 4 of Serie A (currently 2nd).
 
northstandmark said:
There is no doubting or disputing the job Southgate did in rebuilding from a pretty dark place, towards the end of Capello, through Hodgson years, and let's not forget the Allardyce incident! Southgate has brought us lightyears ahead of that and that holds my respect.

My concern is whether he can make full use of the quality and potential now at our disposal, when it comes to the sharp end of competitions when we meet nations with equal or more quality. When I think back on the Croatia, Italy and France games, they all could have been handled better.

It's a small sample size I know which contributes to the pressure on those occasions, and you make a fair point that a slice of luck comes into those games.

I'm also aware the next question on my trail of thought would be 'who would do better' as with any debate over a manager. Beyond my bias for Eddie, I'm not exactly flush with names. Potter seems to get a lot of media praise but I'm not bought into it yet. Mourinho would be the antithesis of Southgate's man management.

One specific nitpick, I also don't get Southgate's ongoing aversion to picking Fikayo Tomori given we need CBs and he starts every week for Milan consistently in the top 4 of Serie A (currently 2nd).
Click to expand...

Yes agree with that.

Particularly Tomori. Appears to be ideal modern cb. Strong, quick... along with usual cb qualities. Yet we still end up with others passed their best, a head of him.
 
zigger zaggar said:
The world cup is only once every four years.
Click to expand...

1. (World Cup, Euros, whatever)

2. Yeah, so you need a manager that can take advantage of a kind draw and maximise it. Not bottle it playing negative, safety first boreball. And balls up the substitutions/in-game management 'cos he doesn't have a scooby-doo.
 
CherryBeetle said:
1. (World Cup, Euros, whatever)

2. Yeah, so you need a manager that can take advantage of a kind draw and maximise it. Not bottle it playing negative, safety first boreball. And balls up the substitutions/in-game management 'cos he doesn't have a scooby-doo.
Click to expand...
If you remember he got us to the final of the Euro's which we lost on penalties and the semi final of a World Cup.
No we haven't won the World Cup since he's been at the helm, neither have Brazil so they must have a clueless manager too.
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
Gareth may have got us to a final and a semi but we got the luck of the draw in both tournaments. We lost to an average Croatia that we should've won, lost to Italy on pens should've won and France should've won.
He's an absolute bottler and I'll never forgive him for bottling the Italy game everyone saw it coming except him and he let 17 year old take the 5th penalty because he's a proper idiot. And now I have to watch him phuck it up for a 4th time in a row. He also missed the decisive pen in Euro 96 because he's a coward.
Click to expand...
He took that penalty in 1996 because it was important to him to 'do the right thing'. He was the capt. after all, so, in his mind, he had a obligation to step up. What bugs me is why El Tel didn't stop him. He should have said , you've never taken one in your life Gaz, let someone else do it, Son. But he didn't. And Gaz bottled it.
 
CherryBeetle said:
He took that penalty in 1996 because it was important to him to 'do the right thing'. He was the capt. after all, so, in his mind, he had a obligation to step up. What bugs me is why El Tel didn't stop him. He should have said , you've never taken one in your life Gaz, let someone else do it, Son. But he didn't. And Gaz bottled it.
Click to expand...
To be fair he made a fortune from a pizza advert after
 
zigger zaggar said:
If you remember he got us to the final of the Euro's which we lost on penalties and the semi final of a World Cup.
No we haven't won the World Cup since he's been at the helm, neither have Brazil so they must have a clueless manager too.
Click to expand...
As my wife is Brazilian, I closely follow the Brazil National Team, O Selecao, and I can tell you that you are absolutely correct. Brazil have had a tragic run of hopeless managers for the last 20 years. They lost the semi-final 1-7, FFS, at the Maracana !!!
 
Cherriess said:
I would say you're being a little too British in your assessment. We're stereotypically too measured and too satisfied with things when other more passionate nationalities would say 'Who cares how many quarter finals or semis we've got into, or even getting into the final. If we haven't won it, the rest is pretty meaningless. Southgate is a truly British man. Very cautious and much more focused on not failing than winning. Had Pep or Klopp been the England manager, I'm sure we'd have won the last Euros and quite possibly the World Cup because they would have taken risks.
Click to expand...
Absolutely nailed it !!
 
SlowDownDerek said:
I'm not saying it's necessarily good enough I'm saying it's better than we ever done before in my lifetime. We tried the pep and Klopp of their day previously and they did worse than Southgate. We can all declare that someone else would have won but nobody else ever got close.

I want to win something but in the absence of that I'll take a view on how well we did and one thing you can say about Southgate is he hasn't been "fucking useless" he's been pretty good on the whole even if that's not been good enough to win anything.
Click to expand...
When you say 'Pretty good', you mean at beating also rans because we got a kind draw. Then as soon as we meet a proper team, where the opposition players have some talent and the opposition manager has some tactics, GS needs to send for the RNLI, as he's that far out of his depth !!
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
We didn't have a go we levelled, missed a pen then shat ourselves and lost like every other time. That France Argentina final, good game but they were very beatable. Just like Italy and Croatia. In 2002 that was literally the best ever Brazil team and our golden gen got them in quarters instead of Turkey.
Click to expand...
The only two times Brazill won the WC unbeaten was 1970 and 2002. So, even though I would say the 1970 team were better, I agree with your argument, 100%. And statistically, at least, you are correct as the 2002 team played one more game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;