[Football] Gareth Southgate: 90 minutes to save his job?

[Charlies Shinpad]

Southgate should have used the Euro's for trying and bedding in new young players ready for next year's World Cup and said this in public then he has the perfect opportunity to go for it in all the games, and if he failed trying to get our of the group or knocked out in the next stage he would have the perfect excuse and I for one would have backed him but instead we are stuck with turgid insipid dull sideways football.

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[SAC]

Nandos is originally South African. I think you would need to smash all the Port on the shelves of your local supermarket or luzz some Pastel de Nata.

My way, please.

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Excuses coming out already, expecting England to lose to the first decent team they play, that is exactly why Southgate will still be in a job after the sun goes down on Englands hopes, should i even call it hopes? The bar seems to be set so low.

Yes you won the group, well done, yes you got 7 points out of 9, again well done and you haven't conceded, fantastic, but were you really expecting less? Because i expected you to win the group with at the very least 7 points, you had 3 home games against, in my opinion, weeker opposition. Only Croatia should have been capable of giving you any sort of test.

What i didn't expect was England to set up so negatively, two defensive midfielders and full backs who must have been instructed not to venture too far forward, because every one of them does so regularly at club level. A wealth of attacking talent that is mostly sat on their arses warming the bench, while you hope to nick a goal from a set piece, that is bad management.

This England squad is capable of so much more, you should be soundly beating my own country and the Czechs, neither have anywhere near the talent you have, but instead you are setting up to protect a suspect centre back pairing and as a result failing to beat Scotland and (i didn't watch your game last night but from what i hear) looking far from inspiring against the Czechs. If England had played to their strengths and got the results they are capable of, you wouldn't be fearing the French, Germans and Portuguese, you would be thinking bring it on! And they would probably be fearing you.

Now though expectations have been lowered, you expect to lose in the next round and even a backs to the wall defensive performance and getting through on penalties will be seen as good, and if you lose.... Well, it was expected, wasn't it? Wasn't it? No it bloody well shouldn't be, this England team is at least as good as Germany and far better than Portugal, you might need a bit of luck with the French, but then again, on the day anything can happen. But not if you set up the way you have so far, that, in my opinion has been disgraceful and there is only one man to blame, but for the reasons i stated earlier, he will probably still be your manager at the world cup next year and then he can do it all over again.

I don't agree with the argument that we should be playing a more attacking formation against the weaker teams.

Partly because if you can't score with four attacking players (and it's not as if Philips or Henderson are staked into the ground either) then sticking somebody else in to run around in the same areas is unlikely to help.

But mainly because you should play in the way you expect to against the best team all the time, to maximise how much practice the squad gets in playing that way. Particularly in international/tournament football where the timescales are relatively short for grooving different formations.

There's another argument to be had about why the performances have been so lacklustre so far (players form, individuals playing in odd positions, not starting Grealish, players coming back from injury etc.) And Southgate has to take responsibility for that, but I don't view it as lack of ambition as such to have set up the way we have.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

I don't agree with the argument that we should be playing a more attacking formation against the weaker teams.

Partly because if you can't score with four attacking players (and it's not as if Philips or Henderson are staked into the ground either) then sticking somebody else in to run around in the same areas is unlikely to help.

But mainly because you should play in the way you expect to against the best team all the time, to maximise how much practice the squad gets in playing that way. Particularly in international/tournament football where the timescales are relatively short for grooving different formations.

There's another argument to be had about why the performances have been so lacklustre so far (players form, individuals playing in odd positions, not starting Grealish, players coming back from injury etc.) And Southgate has to take responsibility for that, but I don't view it as lack of ambition as such to have set up the way we have.

I agree with you that your def midfielders arent staked to the ground, but theyv'e not exactly been busting a gut to get forward, same can be said for your full backs, that has to be tactical. I'm not saying play an extra attacking player, i'm saying pick the best ones you have and give them some support, that is also tactical.

 

[Stat Brother]

Playing 2 DM’s is basically saying “we won’t concede but hopefully we can nick one”. That is so depressing when you look at the players we have. I could understand it against France or Germany but against Scotland and the Czech Republic. FFS.


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So you'd be happy with an 'experimental' 2 DM's in the last 16, after attacking our way through the group stages eventually winning said group?

 

[Brovion]

Excuses coming out already, expecting England to lose to the first decent team they play, that is exactly why Southgate will still be in a job after the sun goes down on Englands hopes, should i even call it hopes? The bar seems to be set so low.

....

They're not excuses, they statements of what realistically might happen given our experiences.

We can't win can we? If we temper our expectations you accuse us of getting our excuses ready. On the other hand if we said "Yeah, really confident that we'll get at least to the semi's and maybe even win it" you'd accuse us of being arrogant!

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Oh hang on, must rush, it sounds like Russia have just declared war

FFS, I was up last night until 1am working on a set of drawings, I'd have gone to bed if I'd known I'd be reduced to a radioactive paste today anyway

 

[Ecosse Exile]

They're not excuses, they statements of what realistically might happen given our experiences.

We can't win can we? If we temper our expectations you accuse us of getting our excuses ready. On the other hand if we said "Yeah, really confident that we'll get at least to the semi's and maybe even win it" you'd accuse us of being arrogant!

Well you clearly think we all believe that anyway, so why not run with it.

You get accused of being arrogant because of pundits coming out with statements suggesting that your u21s could beat Scotland, not because fans are backing their team to do well in a tournament which they should have a chance of winning

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

So you'd be happy with an 'experimental' 2 DM's in the last 16, after attacking our way through the group stages eventually winning said group?

Absolutely not. What I meant to say was I could understand it if it was a group match where a draw would be a great result. Trying this against one of the better teams in the last 16 would be suicide. We’d get ripped a new one.
TBH, I don’t believe for one minute that Southgate is experimenting……


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[Stat Brother]

Absolutely not. What I meant to say was I could understand it if it was a group match where a draw would be a great result. Trying this against one of the better teams in the last 16 would be suicide. We’d get ripped a new one.
TBH, I don’t believe for one minute that Southgate is experimenting……


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England topped the group playing in a style that would appear favourable for the first knock out match, and all other games (if any) following.


I don't understand what you want?

England won the group.
England didn't concede a goal.
England are well set going into the knock out phase.

There is absolutely nothing more that can be accomplished playing the group games of a major tournament.


Changing to a more attacking playing style just because 'it's only Scotchland', does absolutely nothing within the bigger picture of the tournament.

It would seem the only benefit would be to appease the racists in the crowd.





I'd rather the nation team didn't go out of it's way to make racists happy!

 

[Pavilionaire]

1. I would be very surprised if England and Southgate parted company before next year's World Cup in Qatar.

2. The end justifies the means. It has been so long since we reached the final of a major tournament - let alone won one - that getting to a final is more important than how we get there. Once that monkey is off our back we can do what we want.

I am minded of the England rugby team that had won the 5 Nations only once in 27 years, put a great squad together and played champagne rugby in 1990 but were beaten by Scotland in the Grand Slam decider. The following year they played turgid, dull rugby but kicked their way to a Grand Slam and once that pressure was off they dominated for the next 5 years.

 

[Solid at the back]

He has to go immediately, today. He should of resigned after the Scotland game, he didn't so he should of been sacked. He should of resigned after last night's game, he didn't and so should be sacked.

He's an embarrassing "coach" , doesn't have any tactical knowledge of the game, player selection is the biggest joke as he selects players that are not in form. He's pathetic. He has about as much personality of a cauliflower.

He was only employed because the FA say jump and that tit says "how high?" Biggest national disgrace in years. What credentials did he have in being offered the job in the first place? He's done nothing, achieved nothing as a coach. And the sooner we get knocked out the better, so I don't have to see his face and hear his monotone voice every single day.

 

[Brovion]

Well you clearly think we all believe that anyway, so why not run with it.

You get accused of being arrogant because of pundits coming out with statements suggesting that your u21s could beat Scotland, not because fans are backing their team to do well in a tournament which they should have a chance of winning

But you DO think that! If you played a word association game with Scottish football fans I bet you 'arrogant' would be one of the most popular words associated with 'English'. It would certainly be one of the more printable ones! And one pundit saying that he thought the England U21 team could beat Scotland is hardly a torrent of public opinion. There are millions of us who don't think that.

 

[dazzer6666]

Joke thread. Strolled the group in 4th gear

Problem is we only have 4 gears. 1970s Allegro.

 

[Stat Brother]

I guess now the main question regarding this England team is:-

'Can they win a game after going 1-0 down?'


Chances are we'll soon find out.

 

[Mackenzie]

He'll keep his job even if we go out, the football he plays is very dull though given that we've got some quite lively attackers (and Kane).

 

[zefarelly]

Problem is we only have 4 gears. 1970s Allegro.

Exactly. most of the rest of Europe is on 8 speed semi automatic now.

 

[TheDuke]

He has to go immediately, today. He should of resigned after the Scotland game, he didn't so he should of been sacked. He should of resigned after last night's game, he didn't and so should be sacked.

He's an embarrassing "coach" , doesn't have any tactical knowledge of the game, player selection is the biggest joke as he selects players that are not in form. He's pathetic. He has about as much personality of a cauliflower.

He was only employed because the FA say jump and that tit says "how high?" Biggest national disgrace in years. What credentials did he have in being offered the job in the first place? He's done nothing, achieved nothing as a coach. And the sooner we get knocked out the better, so I don't have to see his face and hear his monotone voice every single day.

The is just about he most embarrassing thread I've ever read on NSC

 

[sydney]

Exactly. most of the rest of Europe is on 8 speed semi automatic now.

Indeed , it's the beautiful game for most of the world whereas it's the same old shit for us .....zzzzzzzzzz.

 

[Coach_Carter_92]

Portugal drew their way to the final and eventually winning the last Euros, and these tournaments are won by defensively strong teams usually