The Truth About England & Gareth Southgate
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2022
- Gareth Southgate is England's second most successful manager of all time, having taken the Three Lions to the semi finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, but a recent 4-0 defeat to Hungary has piled the pressure on the England boss.
Southgate is accused of being negative, out of his depth, and of having got lucky with England's previous tournament draws... But how much of that is true?
In this video, HITC Sevens attempts to answer that question, taking a look at some of the most common critiques of Gareth Southgate and sharing his views on the England manager ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. - กีฬา
If I was England I’d just hire Sean Dyche and let the power of memes carry you
Mark Goldbridge would shit himself
England with Sean Dyche, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce.
Good shout
Time for some Brexit Football
None of this shower would eat glass for dyche im sure
It is often said here in Croatia that we have 4 million coaches - when the team isn't performing well, everyone seems to have an idea on who to play, which formation and tactics to deploy etc. Of course, as is evident in this case, it's not something unique to either of our nations, but one thing most English fans should do is humble themselves.
The Premier League is an incredibly competitive league with many English players who play well at top level, as well as an enormous amount of them in the lower ranks, making England one of the greatest footballing nations in the world. But that does not entitle you to repeated success at tournaments. Not only is international football dependent on the 11 players that you field, not your entire country's reserves, but the nature of tournaments is very different to that of leagues. Real Madrid, for instance, do so well in the UCL because they have mastered their performances in tough matches and play best when the stakes are high, compared to Manchester City or PSG who don't manage to do the same with equally strong or even better squads on paper.
Surprisingly, that doesn't even seem to be the main concern right now - the current criticism has followed an unsuccessful campaign in the Nations League, a tournament that torments players after long seasons and takes away from their breaks by making them play 4 matches in 10 days. Of course that managers will want to rotate most of their squads in this time and experiment with something new. The Nations League, I repeat, doesn't matter. It's not that the results aren't worrying, but they are understandable with all circumstances taken into account.
Back to Croatia, for example - we lost the opening game 0-3 to Austria, a team which also did not qualify for the World Cup and is equally below Croatia's level as Hungary is below England. We continued to have issues with attacking in the remaining games and scored only one goal from open play in the whole campaign, in our case due to a lack of attackers who are in good form or have the quality (our best no. 9 is 30 years old and plays for Osasuna), but Dalić decided to put two young center backs who had never been called to the national team before, Erlić and Šutalo, for the remaining three games (with the exception of Šutalo in the first game against France). They play for Spezia and Dinamo Zagreb respectively, teams that would probably be in the lower half of the Premier League, but their performances were world-class, as we only conceded one goal in those three games (none when they were both on the pitch). Few expected it from them, but the Nations League helped this experiment succeed and many are calling for them to be our starting center backs in Qatar. What I'm saying is, it's great if you win matches in the Nations League as well, but don't sweat it too much or put pressure on Southgate. You had a perfect qualifying campaign and were a penalty away from winning the Euros last year, so what's the big deal? I'm sure the team will perform better in matches that do matter.
Sorry for the essay without paragraphs, I might edit the post to add them if it's unbearable to read.
We have 40 million coaches in Poland.
So don't worry, you're not alone.
Indian here, we have @ 1.5 billion cricket coaches and selectors - irrespective of whether we win or lose.
We have 70 million coaches in the UK too. There's nothing showing a lack of humility in wanting your team to perform as well as they can. There is no lack of humility in suggesting they can, and should do better. There is great respect from the English fans for the strength of all nations nowadays in international football and it has never been more true to say that "there is no easy game" internationally any more. It is however natural when you have a very strong attacking squad to want the coach to play attacking football and I think thats what people have been angry at.
@@TheAlb100 Being humble isn't referring to accepting a heavy defeat, but being content with your team not necessarily being the favorite and even if it is, still knowing that the top odds for a team to win the World Cup are 1 in 6-7 at best. That's what I was referring to, as Alfie mentioned numerous times that some said Southgate is wasting the generation when the results say otherwise.
Would England perform better if they played more attacking football? Surely, it cannot get worse than the last few matches, so I think the staff have taken note of that. I love to see my team play ambitiously in attack even if they concede more as a result, but I would be happy with a win even if it meant parking the bus. Also, attacking mechanisms are somewhat more difficult to implement than defensive ones, which is why smaller nations are often able to park the bus and score on counter-attack. A team like England that has huge potential in attack will be at their best during a major tournament, when they have enough time to practice and when a standard 11 will be known. Your concern about the team not doing well enough is valid, but that isn't always the call to sack the manager. Constructive criticism is never a bad thing, it's something that can be discussed, but I'm all too familiar within my own nation how quick mindless hate can begin to spark everywhere.
@@TheAlb100 I also want to add, again from my own nation's perspective, that while I admire respectful fans like you, Croatia was essentially being humiliated by the press and some fans before the 2018 semi-final, with an England-France final already having been talked about. Euro 2020 saw, in my opinion, an improvement in that regard. It's alright to be excited, ambitious and obviously biased towards your team when talking about others' strengths when emotions are involved, some however exceed that limit
For the record (Hungarian here), there were a couple of additional elements to why did our squad improve this much in recent years:
- Players who are playing on a much higher level, like Sallai, Szoboszlai, Gulácsi, Orbán, etc. are really highly rated and often quite young players who are playing in strong leagues. Their mentality, physical condition is at an international level now (finally)
- At the last Euro we were able to give Germany, France really tough games, but the main point which was raised back then was that we can't keep the same mental stability and stamina to the end, and we fizzled out 10-15-20 minutes before the end of these games. This is seems to be fixed now, which is why we were able to play like we did in these recent games.
- We're actually struggling with the forward positions, given Ádám Szalai is probably in his last years and we don't really have too much competition, even with Martin Ádám (the bearded guy) who was this season's top goalscorer in Hungary. This is why our manager is using a center who's strong and is able to keep the ball and let the wingers and attacking midfielders do the actual scoring.
- Rossi is really good at putting together a squad in a way like you usually talk about the feats of Unai Emery.
If we had played you when our lads actually wanted to be there we'd had won.
@@timwightman4473 So they lost 5:0 across two games because they “didn’t want to be there” ? Jog on
@@tusaadrian7422 they showed as much interest as me in it. None. So next time you work for ages and then you have some meaningless away day to go on before you holiday you're going to be properly motivated?
I'm sorry, Szoboszlai is a great talent but there's a strong chance he doesn't even make our bench. Hungary having a stronger team than in recent years shouldn't be used in Southgate's defense. The fact of the matter is that we should still be winning that game, even if it's a tough game.
@@tusaadrian7422 Yes I think we did lose 5-0 because we didn't want to be there. It's like the league cup in club football the big clubs have a reputation of not caring about it & the smaller sides take it more seriously.
The fact that pretty much all of Euro 2020 games were at home was a massive advantage. How we would have done against Germany in Baku we will never know...
but (a) that applies to any host team in a tournament, and (b) England just got beat at home 4-0. Yes home matches do give some advantage, but not enough to say they had an easy ride
But officially England weren't even the host nation that tournament, and still they got the advantage/luck to play six of the seven games at home. If you play opponents that have less quality in their squad at home in a big tournament, the advantage is much bigger. So except for the Germanygame England had a easy ride in the Euro's. And yes youre home advantage will be less if you play with your second team against a fully motivated team like Hungary knowing the trashtalk they've had as a country in the last year from other nations like England, Germany, Netherlands, etc.
@@melpoe724
There was no "host" team in the Euro. They just got an unfair advantage against everyone else. And still, they robbed Denmark with a fake penalty.
@@pascallovic
They had an easy ride and still needed the reff's aid against Denmark to pass.... terrible players in England. To male it worse, most of them aren't even english but caribbean.
@@juanjoseph Huh.... I happened to read your comment aloud, and my dog started barking...
The problem is that even after England score 1 goal and take the lead they don't take advantage of this and try to score a 2nd and give the opponent an uppercut. You can clearly see this in the games England played against Croatia and Italy. England score one goal they don't go for the second and then they concede. The fact that they never go for a second goal in these games is clearly a managerial mistake imo.
This. This is a big gripe I have. The opponent is on the back foot and reeling! Throw a bit more at it and take control of the game with a 2nd goal!
And whenever we play anyone really good like Brazil, Germany or France, we are beaten before the game even starts because we change tactics and play defensively.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 given that Southgate has played France and Brazil once (0-1-1) and beat Germany in the R16 you clearly just plucked that little insight out of thin air but ok. Also the France and Brazil games were in his 1st year and were random friendly games instead of actually meaning something.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 not from England so I'm a neutral. So you think they should play more attacking against these teams? Well then expect more 4-0 scorelines.
France, Spain and Germany to name a few would destroy yous. Southgate has a game plan. Capello etc just tried to fit all the good players in with none and it failed
Never in my life have a seen England go for a second or third goal in a game when we've been 1-0 up. It's annoys me SO much 😬😬😬
It's amazing how quickly people have forgotten how low expectations were going into the 2018. They were basement-level
In a way that probably helped the team. England players in the past have feared playing because of the reaction they get when they come back home.
Expectation was low because people had given up with the English national team. They were tired of the FA always picking the wrong man and not what the people wanted. Remember they hired Sam Allardyce which no football fan wanted at all and then had no back up plan other than Southgate who had done nothing with the U21s!!!
And this expectations were reciprocated when we only won 3/7 games without pens - Sweden, Tunisia and Panama…
expectations were based on how bad england does every tournament but England do have a talented team that under performed before that but now they are actually doing well in tournaments
Not outside of England. You have a world-class squad that underperforms under the current management.
I think its interesting how international managers are seen. As someone from Germany I can say that Löw was critizised most of the time (even though I was very young I think even before the World Cup of 2014) and to this day people ask if the team won because or despite of Löw.
What I have learned about international tournaments is that it's very rare to see a team completely domination opposition and maybe even loosing. It actually seems that these characters that seem to have "questionable" descisions at time and don't have a huge track record in club football are actually often are quite successfull internationally. Even if England had some easier games it's still not a given to win those.
Always though low did a great job as someone from Ireland Germany are always playing good football. Southgate however plays horrible football which is the problem rather than his achievements.
I think a few factors are the cause here:
- People expect club level play which is unrealistic. You can't play complete systems like Gegenpress as you can't put the training hours required in, the squad keeps changing due to player form and you would need to have an entire squad willing and able to play it. Clubs can buy the players if that's not the case.
- Nationalism. Fans think too much of their own squad because of it and don't know about other squads.
- Different crowd. Nation football attracts a lot of casual (nothing wrong with that) audiences that don't know that much about football and just expect to be amused.
@@FCGroningen1987 these points are all very fair but how did Spain play some of the best football the world has ever seen only in 2010. Brazil teams of the past have played great football. Germany teams french. Don’t think it excuses Southgate but very good point
@@AdamCanavan12 Exceptional talents for Spain and the core of the team played at the same club. It was basically Barcelona at it's Zenith without Messi. They played some really good football, but definately not always. If you go back to their tournament matches, you'll see underwhelming scores and gameplay as well.
The same holds true for the best Germany and Brazil teams to some extend. There's been times a nation squad was clearly better than it's competition; it happens.
That's not the case now. I don't think England for example can field anything close to Mbappe - Benzema up front. Even then, France can lose and plays very boring in most games.
@@FCGroningen1987 I get your point but for me that Spain team In particular played fantastic football dominating possession while teams tried to break them such as the Dutch in the final. They were lacking as you said a messi type of player.
My point is if you look at England they could play 4 at the back add an extra man in midfield Henderson Philips with Sancho Foden Sterling with Kane up top for example. The have the best rb in the world but don’t play him which would also add great attacking output. They are afraid to play 4 atb because they play Maguire which is ridiculous he should be dropped and they should play many cbs in front of him.
But anyway my point is they could and should play much better football imo and also in most England fans opinions (not English btw)
It's good to see a video with a reasonable perspective on this. The English media in particular are atrocious at taking victories and defeats in thier proper context.
A win means we're winning the World Cup tomorrow. A loss means the sky is falling, everyone needs to be sacked and we need to start again. Even if that match is in a round robin league we don't take all that seriously yet.
He’s an absolute muppet!
The English football mindset still harks back to the great day in 1066 when a bunch of French-Viking invaders beat those lousy Anglo-Saxons in a game of war.
I've been watching 🏴 in major ⚽️ competitions since the '98 World Cup. The biggest enemy of the England National Team is the English media.
The video is shit for once. Southgate coached MIddlesborough with not much success. How is he in the job?
@@Romartus Anglo Saxons came from Germany. I blame them.
Euro 96 was the only time I felt confident of England's chances to win a tournament. All other squads since have "looked good on paper" but were never at the level their names/club form suggested
The 2002 team was decent, ran into an incredible Brazil side though
@@enthusiastofcute on paper the team was decent, 30 mins against 10 men though, Brazil comfortably handled England.
@@Goat-wh1qw true
Euro 1996 was also the only one that played like a proper team with cohesion and a clear plan. 2002 qualified with 2 draws in the group stages and went home against the first good opponent.
@@pritapp788 I loved the Euro 96 team, Gascoigne, Shearer, Sheringham...what they did to the Netherlands, totally agree, played like a team
Mate you've absolutely rinsed anyone who says this is the best England team in 20 years. Like, I can feel their souls disinteresting.
Youth is sometimes better than experience.
Anyone saying that was already too detached from reality to be affected by a reasoned argument. Its like trying to play chess with a pigeon, as the saying goes
Anyone who really thinks this generation is the best in 20 years is clearly delusional or never experienced football prior to 2018.
This is a very reasonable video but in my opinion if Southgate gets sacked I am convinced no Premier League team would try to sign him which shows how he is rated. I still think he is not using the full potential of this squad and he has his favorites which makes his starting eleven decisions strange at best sometimes.
So Essentially you listened to the facts , listened to the realities of the situation but then totally dismissed it because of your myopic opinion that bares no relevance to anything other than opinionated bias supposition 👍🏻 the only shocking thing is that over twenty people thought that was a reasonable and astute comment 🤦♂️
@@futurekillxbox972 The only shocking thing is than in 21st century you still haven't learned that people can have an opinion that's different than yours. I've been watching the same style of reactive, predictive, counter attacking football for more than 3 years at my favorite club Man United and I know what it leads to. Instead of using the strengths of his players southgate is just doing the only thing he knows. On paper his results are good but for example the final of Euro 2020 (2021) against Italy who had a team who I would argue individually has the lesser quality players. Apart from the first goal from Shaw for the rest of the game Italy were totaly in control of the game and southgate had no idea how to change that. He has probably the most creative wing back in the world - Alexander-Arnold and he doesn't know or want how to use him. One of the most creative English players - Foden - again no clue how to use him and so on and so on.
@Green Harp Financial You are right. The problem today is that everyone knows that a top manager would prefer managing a club rather than a national team. So most of the managers of the better national teams are usually people who are not good enough for the top football clubs. Probably the only exceptions I can think of are Flick and Enrique. Deschampl, Santos, Martinez and so on would never be approached by any of the top clubs for the managers position.
@@Kokorba6iqta Opinion only has a relevancy when it doesn’t refute a fact otherwise it becomes ill informed nonsense and should be treated as such . I think the real shock should be there are far to many people willing to give participation medals just for trying - that’s a pertinent analogy for the asinine drivel you started that diatribe with🤣
@@futurekillxbox972 Such a prolonged and complicated way of saying nothing. Best of luck on your comments section endeavors.
I think he's done a good job but I find that he doesn't have the attitude to go for it 100%, I'm Welsh and even though Rob Page isn't a genius in any way, he always takes risks and doesn't take half measures which we love him for.
Pipe your horses it was a lucky Gareth bale sending wales to world cul, page got nothing.
Rob Page hahaha I'm a Northampton fan, the guy was genuinely clueless, took one of our best ever teams and made it one of the worst
which is why he won't win anything
Southgate is the first manager to get England to a World Cup semi final since Robson. And the first manager to get England to the final of a major tournament since Alf Ramsey. Yet people want to get rid of him.
He could have played the regular first choice players in the Nations League (a competition designed to replace friendlies and very much the Eurovision Song Contest of international football) and he would have been accused of not trying to develop depth. He’s played some inexperienced players who haven’t quite worked out, and now England fans want to get rid of him.
The guy can’t win with you lot.
I'm English and 100% agree. We couldn't have a better manager than we do now. We've tried the best foreign manager in world football and it failed. Southgate does a lot behind closed doors to try and create a philosophy that helps bring through the under 21 into the first team
He can win by... winning a tournament perhaps 🤔 just maybe rather than calling failure success.
@@ifrickinlovethesmiths5851 4th in the world and 2nd in Europe is success pal. England have as explained failed to even qualify for tournaments as recently as ‘08 so yes winning would be great but making a 4th and 2nd in 2 tournaments with a team that on paper is vastly inferior to ‘08 for an example is success regardless of which way you slice that. Remember we were a tall Italian man away from a major trophy 1 year ago.
@@ifrickinlovethesmiths5851 failure drives success. One needs to fail in order to know what it takes to win
The Eurovision Song Contest of football. LOL thats a good one 😂😂😂
My biggest issue with Southgate is, that he coached his team into the penalty shootout, instead of subbing in Saka and Sancho 10 minutes earlier, so they can actually do something or at least touch the ball once... unsurprisingly both missed...
Especially considering, that Southgate knows what it's like to miss the decisive penalty since 1996...
I think Sven did the same thing in 06 he brought Carragher on to take a penalty when he hadn't touched the ball he then missed the decisive penalty.
He was a lot more interested in signalling what a virtuous person he is, didn't give the lads a touch all tournament but wanted to make them the heroes
@@r4h4al he did... which only makes it worse... I always point towards Marcello Lippi, who subbed in like 3 fresh attackers and won the semi finale against Germany in 2006 in the 118th minute... I will never understand, why coaches wait for he last second to sub in their penalty takers...
@@PassivesAbseits in theory it’s because bringing in penalty takers weakens a squad overall because you aren’t usually making like for like replacements so the team ends up weak for as long as the subs are on. Overall I’m a strong believer that letting the lads who played the 120 take the penalties is the best bet because they are warm but managers seem to think differently.
@@benlowes8570 Do you really believe, that brining on a fresh player, that could actually do something on the attack, "weakens a squad" over letting a player on the pitch, that has already 100+ minutes in his legs? As a small nation, probably, but as England, that has the most expensive squad and tons of talent on the offensive side...
I don't think Southgate is totally useless, but I also think he is the limiting factor for this England team.
He was a safe appointment when he got the job, maybe England should take a risk for the next manager, although as fun as potter would be, I can't see him going to international management.
I'd imagine conte would have a lot of fun with this England side
Assuming they start next season well , I do think that England would have a higher chance of winning a tournament with Gerrard or Lampard in charge.
@@21hazza hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahagaha
History has already shown us what even the best managers in the world can achieve with a "best in a generation" team, nothing at all. What Southgate has achieved with this current team of, arguably, only 1 world class player is all the more remarkable, especially since the 2 best english central defenders at this moment in time, Stones and Maguire, are not very good at all. Remember that Germany have won more tournaments than England, simply by being hard to beat and relying on 1 or 2 better players performing in a final. It should also be remembered that Italy were the best team at the Euros, and dominated the whole of the final, despite falling behind early, against the run of play.
Excellent video as always, bringing some sense & rationality to the Gareth Southgate situation. I think Southgate's been fine for England & these results in these Nations League aren't to be taken seriously. The problem is we moan about everything we could have won the Euro's on penalties & people would still say he was lucky for whatever reasoning.
I think the Nations League is meaningless yes it's technically competitive but in all intents & purposes it's friendly games.
I think he deserves to carry on but for him to keep his job he has to get at least SF's. The country have to try & see rationality here & try to get behind him again.
I think we definitely overachieved in the last two tournaments...This WC we obviously have a very good squad but like you say so do like 5 other teams so with that in mind I think SF's would be acceptable. 2 of those 6 won't even make the SF's let's remember. I think Gareth Southgate will have learned from the Croatia & Italy games where if we go 1-0 up I've got no doubt that we search for the 2nd goal and go for 2-0 & 3-0 in that sort of situation again. As always at the end of the year the WC is what we will judge him on not the Nations League.
Also thanks for clearing up the "5 at the back" myth. When people say that it's so misleading it's like we're playing a flat back 5 which is nothing of the sort.
Like you say with Trent & Chilwell in there it's more attacking than a 442 everybody fails to grasp that concept. Or people say we play with 7 defenders I assume they're counting Rice & Phillips in there, which is a bit of a stretch to count them as defenders when they are predominantly midfield players.
Every defeat should be taken seriously! Hungary certainly took it seriously.
Based on last season's form & any new developments next season, prior to the WC, Southgate should start the following in terms of form, ability & chemistry
Ramsdale
Shaw
Tomori
Stones
Trent
Rice
Henderson
Sancho
Bellingham
Foden
Kane
@@john-adriancoker2789 While I disagree with that team it's still strong nonetheless.
Well done - I thought your analysis was 100% accurate. The reality is that Gareth Southgate has done better than anyone except Sir Alf Ramsay. Working with undercooked and overcooked players and one howling tactical error in a competition nobody cares that much about does not a crap manager make.
Even Sir Alex Ferguson, without doubt the greatest football manager the world will ever know (I'm not a Man U fan btw) made the odd tactical howler, and in crucial games too.
Southgate should and will be judged on his team's performance at the Euros and World Cup - that's what we care about. Making the semis or better in these tournaments with the players he has should be regarded an excellent achievement. It would seem to me ridiculous to sack a manager who hasn't actually failed yet in the tournaments that matter. He deserves to keep his job for now.
Exactly. Judge him on competitions that matter, not dead freindly matches or this pointless nations league nonsense
But he got an easy run in a poor tournament so pretty much a bad team got overated
@@petesmart1983 The man can only beat the teams infront of him in any tournament. I'd just like to add that I have absolutely no sympathy for Southgate as a Boro fan. He got us relegated ha ha. Actually never understood how he got the England job off the back of Middlesbrough but there we are.
@@bricktop. would you want him out after he got england regulated?
All success in tournaments relies on a element of success. Whilst i'd love to see attacking football, whatever that means, i won't complain if we win a major tournament playing a defensive style.
I think the real issue is that we don't seem to have either an identity, nor alternative plans if plan A fails.
Maybe Southgate understands the risks inherent in our weak defence and thus plays a safety first game.
The English press and us fans need to realize that teamwork can, and often beats a reliance on individual brilliance.
Greece did it on the euros so it's fine by me
@@bricktop. exactly. In 20 years the records will only show the win. How it was done doesn't matter.
Tbh i did enjoy how Greece did it.
I think England were the least exciting team to watch in the euros proper boring. With the talent pool you have id expect exciting football. It is the beautiful game after all.
@@AdamCanavan12 so what? They won games and that’s what counts. They could have played like the Brazil ‘82 side, and you’d have found something to criticise them about.
@@attackpatterndelta8949 if that’s your opinion on football fair enough. I’d much prefer to watch a team play a good brand of football I can enjoy for 90 minutes time and time again. Then watch a team win a trophy playing horrible football to experience winning 1 trophy?
Also just look at Pep, Klopp, Ferguson the best managers are great tactically but also put huge emphasis on entertaining free flowing football that impresses the fans.
For me, it boils down to how painful it is to watch them play. It might get you to a final if you're lucky in key moments, but playing with eight players at the back and hoping that the front three are able to sneak a goal on their own is just crap
I'd rather play boring and win than playing exciting and lose
@@ethandalton6480 And you are of course entitled to your own opinion. I do, however, not think that his style of play is the gives the team the best chance of winning.
This is how teams who lack quality from back to front ( the only real quality being at the front ) succeed. You can't expect to play attacking progressive football without good deep lying midfielders to make that happen. Like asking a horse to bark
@@ethandalton6480 But that's the point, England play boring and still haven't won a thing. If reaching a semi-final and a final is your idea of "win", then so be it.
@@ElBarcoGaming Henderson has played that role extremely successfully at Liverpool for years. Rice and Phillips should be more than capable as well. There is also something in-between "attacking progressive football" and eight at the back.
He's the International version of Ole, nice guy who the players like but he's clueless tactically
what a garbage take
@@lollol9772 kinda liked your take with lewandowski is better than ronaldo..
Looking at the evidence - yes play defensively and lose 4-0 to a much worse side
I disagree. Southgate's main weakness is that he isn't great at making substitutions, something ole was good at. I'd take Southgate over ole as United boss though, like it or not he does have a game plan, it's defensive and kinda dull but it wins the important games (just so long as he uses his subs at a good time)
@@Rassalcon I can't stress enough how frustrating late subs are. I feel for anyone who has a coach that waits until the last 15 minutes for subs when the team isn't winning.
This was a great way to explain it. Great vid 👍🏻
A massive Thank you to you! For calling out and highlighting the dross that is Rory Jennings. Any views he received you should be receiving triple for actually having a common sense and logical approach.
Well said mate . I am a Scotsman who really enjoys watching England , and usually roots for them . This does not go down well with my mates . I live in Germany and believe me the thought of playing against Scotland does not illicit the same reaction here as when they hear they`ve drawn England . Although Scotland have been playing rather well recently . The Germans have a saying " suffering at a very high level " , and when I think of the players that England have had to choose from over generations it`s bloody unbelievable and consequently , this saying applies. This present generation of England lads come across as thoroughly decent blokes and I think that`s important , but I also think they can play a bit , and that`s also important . Btw I`m a Celtic fan so I believe I`m used to seeing a pretty decent level of tactical awareness . skil and engagement. Keep up the good work Alfie
For the euros, you shouldn't forget that 6/7 games, including all the hard ones, were played in wembley with traveling restricitions, meaning that it was pretty much impossible for away fans to get into the stadium except they were living in the uk.
2004 and 2006 sides went out against excellent Portuguese sides in close encounters. Lost there best player in both games with injury and red cards. 2004 particularly was very unlucky. Can’t credit Southgates work just for going further with more fortunate draws
i bet if we had won the euros this shit wouldn't have come out of your mouth.
You're just a bipolar supporter all smiles with things are good but the second things go wrong you're gunning for a rage. When we reached the final everyone was crediting southagate for reaching the final, now when everything is slightly going wrong your saying "man you were lucky." Of course luck exists in every journey no two journeys are the same you simply have to beat what is in front of you. WC 2014 Argentina had 4 clear cut chances higuain missed 3 of them, germany also had chance but argentina had the easier ones but germany won the final, if higuain had scored it would have all been a different story.
2002 against the golden Brazilian generation and we played better than them.
The two teams we went out to were better on paper. Italy's gk, defense and midfield make ours look v poor in comparison. Attack similar level.
Croatia has experience pros all over, Modric, Rakitic and Brozovic, Rebic and Persic v Tripper, Henderson, Alli, Lingaard and Young is even more lopsided.
Mandzukic played for top clusb for a reason, Vrsalko the same. They had 2 players on their team that weren't top class. We had Kane and Sterling who are..
@@amdsavas992 we did. Difference was ronaldo and Ronaldinho
I'm not English.
But 2018 was the only time I can remember where the England squad had 0 pressure on it.
I think that was a major contributing factor to their overperformance.
No one expected that team to be 1 half away from the Final.
Euro 2020 had all but 1 game at home which definitely helped them get to the Final.
I think QF is what the realistic expectation of this team should be.
Especially since they would likely play France in the QF if both teams win their group
Raheem Sterling had pressure heaped on him by the press because he had a gun tattoo. A lot have said that pressure on him was why he underperformed at the 2018 World Cup whereas everyone else (particularly Jordan Pickford) were having a great go of it
This has got to be the most precise England related football video of the last 20 years! Bravo! 🎉
Germany beat Portugal 4-2 not 5-2 and when England had beaten Germany Rice avoided a red card in the early stage of the game. As you say football is a game of fine margins Thomas Muller missed an easy chance due to which England won. English media and fans hype players to the max due to these extremely high expectations there is a lot of pressure so the failure is inevitable.
That Germany team was also not as bad as some made it out to be, so overcoming it was still a remarkable feat. Big tournaments are always games of fine margins and in that case, England got lucky though that result wasn't completely undeserved.
Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes not (the final)
England was slightly better than Germany in that Euros match a year ago, but only very slightly. I've seen hundreds of games, where the slightly better team still looses. It takes one deflected shot, one defender stumbling, one surprise rebound goal chance, one clumsy penalty or one fast counter attack. It's part of the magic of football and the difference to sports with high score lines (such as Basketball, Volleyball, Handball etc.): it's not enough to slightly better to be guaranteed a win.
@@Jonathanizer ive seen many so called legendary players have that deflected shots etc goals and suddenly hypeed up as a great player. football is it what it is, sometimes youre lucky sometimes youre not.
Germany at Euro 20/21 were in a transition.
At the end of the day England bottled a European final in their own backyard and were dominated by an Italy team that was good but not great. Southgate was at fault for that for not having a plan b and putting an inexperienced 19 year old on a deciding penalty.
Southgate is the international equivalent of Solskjær, the stats back the manager up but you know deep down he’s a ticking time bomb. He can motivate the team better than anyone in the last 20 years and deserves credit for that but that’s a double edged sword when his tactics are woeful.
We should be grateful for what he achieved but if he fails hard at the World Cup we should thank him and move on. I don’t care about playing attractive football but he doesn’t inspire confidence defensively (even if we defended well in the Euros) and he can’t utilise our attackers or midfielders.
We’re not in a ‘golden generation’ but this team’s mentality and chemistry have as high a ceiling as our teams from the 2000s imo.
Italy dominated the tournament from the start and played the best football out of anyone.
What a bunch of nonsense.
@@TheTennesseeFistMachine they absolutely did not dominate Spain and didn’t qualify for the World Cup. They’re clearly not a dominant team against other top teams.
Perfect point
@@TheTennesseeFistMachine they literally needed penalties against a Spain team that had great chances to win the game in normal time but Oyarzabal missed golden chances to do so. They tires out as the tournament wore on
@@TheTennesseeFistMachine largely the same group of players couldn’t qualify for the world cup so they were hardly world beaters, and most of there games were pretty tight.
As an Irish fan I'm not exactly unhappy with Southgate managing England take that how you will
😂😂
The dillusion comes from the easy-ish run we had that took us to the final.
At the world cup we are in a table that on paper we should walk, but looking at the Hungary performance I don't think that's going to happen.
If the team doesn't even get out of table formation, I think he will end up leaving.
'Based on one game where only a few of our starters were fielded, we'll obviously not make it through the groups.' Im not saying that its dead set that we'll do well but I dont think yours is a very rational take
Yep it was an easy run into the final without playing against big teams and then lost to average Italian side in the final, then the team got overated
never heard of someone being referred to as a grade a turnip might have to nick that one lad 😂😂😂😂
Declan Rice said during the Euros, “I’d like to do more but I do what I’m told”
You mean in England's best euros ever?
@@danbanfield9764 yeah, but this team didn’t play the other tournaments as well to compare to. So I’d say ‘96 was a bigger achievement due to the top table teams being superior.
In either case the point was adding to a part of the video not it’s justification.
I'll openly admit to having had doubts about Southgate at times in the past but his record at tournament finals speaks for itself, as a lifelong England fan I loved the 2018 world cup and euro 2020, the best I've seen England play in my lifetime at major tournaments, you can't fault that imo and that's why I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt right now
Good job for bringing some much needed nuance.
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
Never stop spamming my dude.. i noticed you in most comments..
@@ritchierich2793 i don’t spam it every video but sometimes yes
It is up to Alfie if he wants to do that
@@BALHAM69 chilled bro, im on your side ... It be really pretty interesting story on afc Wimbledon..
@@ritchierich2793 i do think Alfie will do a video on his team hull city because they have new owners from turkey soon too
@@BALHAM69 oh what.... Thats some new info.. wait takeover is officially done or in the process of getting bought out..
The problem for England is that they’re a good team but the whole seeding process gives them games against teams they should beat and everyone gets excited until they play a quality team who’re coached well and lose then act surprised
This is why I like the Nations League. 4 games in 10 days was insanity (although seemingly a scheduling necessity).
There's no reason to take it less seriously, and even if the players can't help it, it's certainly more competitive than friendlies.
Germany and Denmark were quality teams
Thanks for this! Can't believe the amount of tripe that has been getting bandied around the last few days! (Although this is England and I've lived here my entire 46 year life... so ought to be used to it by now.) Yes, the last 4 games were awful to watch and criticism is due. Much more urgency was needed in the final third... Grealish should have played more first time passes, for example... but it looked like Southgate was taking the opportunity to try out different players... which is understandable.
He's already said that he tried out "new attacking systems" during the nations league (or words to that effect). Essentially, get ready for more 5atb with 2 dm's, boreball.
Here's England in 2021 (which were all competitive WC qualifiers or Euro matches)
pl-13 w-9 d-3 l-1 f-42 a-7 gd-+35
(including the 3-2 pen shootout loss)
Whatever happens going forward he achieved that! Can't have been a much better year in the history of English football!
As a Scot it is so refreshing hear an honest and (quite frank) accurate account of the England national team. The team (in comparison to world class teams) is decent at best, you had a very easy route to the final of euro 2021 and the exception levels are a joke. It isn’t helped by the media immediately planning how they are going to win the tournament as soon as the draw is made but fans buy into to so much, it makes them think they only need to show up and they have won the cup already. And before anyone tells me how poor Scotland are, I know we are, we are not comparable to England in the way of quality on the international stage but at tournaments gone pass neither has England to the likes of Spain, Germany or France. Keep up the good work Alfie 👍
To be honest this is the best Scottish team I’ve seen in 10 years at least. You guys got to a World Cup qualifier playoff. That’s pretty damn close to getting into the World Cup.
You are so right Alfie, I'm 57, so seen an England team or 2, I have enjoyed watching England under Southgate & yes he's made a few mistakes, but the setup seems to of learned & the team has progressed with each tournament, that's not say we will win in Qatar, but last year's Euros was the first time I've worn my shirt for the whole juration of a tournament, so we need to leave him alone and judge him at the end of the year. We should be supporting not criticising this group of talented players and the staff that are trying to achieve something that could be special.
Southgate is like english version of fernando santos. Have really good attacking players but play conservatively (except in portugal case it almost cost them world cup qualification and have to go through play off to qualify)
Santos won the euros.. if Southgate won the euros nobody would give a shit about style of play
@@rudreshravishankar8846 yes, but they finished third in the group in that euros if the euro is like any previous euro, portugal is getting knocked out early in group stage, and some portugal fans want him out after disapointing performance in world cup qualifiers
Day 42: Considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 7 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population
Love your work thank all your team
That's the way to end a video Alfie. Thanks from the States!
Gareth SouthGate seems to be a Genuinely Decent Fella and has Admittedly Overachieved with The England National Team but he’s Not a Top Class Tactical Coach … 🤷🏿♂️. ⚽️
And which top class tactical coach would take the England job over a premier league job that pays more?
He's not even medium-level.
@@ian-flanagan Exactly, plus we have tried that many times before, good club managers do not always make good national team managers.
I mean, we’ve not really been too clinical and consistent, and I think that’s our problem. In the second Hungary game in particular, it was our defence that needed improving, whereas against Italy we needed to improve our finishing. It’s just our sheer inconsistency which needs to improve quickly; thankfully our group has been really tight, meaning that there is still a chance
I get that but should they touted as World Cup contenders? Probably not.
Italians I know have told me they still don’t know how they won Euro 2020. Compared to other teams that have won trophies their team was very poor.
England are a very good side, but there are better sides out there.
As an American myself, I suppose Gregg Berhalter is held to the same standard as Gareth Southgate, coaching a potential golden generation of USA players. He caught a lot of flak because he seemed to bungle his way through qualifiers, seeing as how USA only qualified for Qatar by goal difference over Costa Rica. While I have only moderate confidence in Berhalter myself, I’d say in his defense that a lot of those golden boys, especially Gio Reyna, spent most of the qualifiers injured, and USA will need a few more generations before we have the depth to deal with such injuries.
That being said, I am looking forward to what we yanks call Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, when I will be sure to sing “It’s Not Coming Home!”
I agree with you on this Alfie.
I think some people tend to hit the panic button after a few poor results.
Alfie can you make a video on how a draft system would and could work in football as I was thinking about it the other day and would love a more in depth and detailed opinion on it
He should never be forgiven for that catastrophic penalty taking choice decision.
Such a thorough analysis. Well done. And all true.
Great content. Impartial and objective
Day 276: Indonesia XI If All Eligible Players Had Declared For Them.
Nainggolan would be the captain
What's the XI then?
Van Bronckhorst will be the captain and LB
Keep dreaming bocah
Southgate partly a victim of his own success in 2018.
As you compared really well to the squad of 15-20 years ago, this has the potential to be better but it clearly is miles off today. And yeah, our defence is clearly ropey so it's fair to play more conservatively to give extra cover when the alternative is probably the heart-attack approach of Keegan-era Newcastle and trying to win every game 4-3.
Also, always interested how the other big nations view their results in friendlies, including the Nations League. It should be a good chance to try different things which may result in results like Hungary just so it proves certain formations / players / tactics or combinations don't work and never need to be used in competitive games... but do all big countries prefer to just keep things as strong as possible and make sure to get the friendly wins?
A number of the bigger nations lost to underdogs in this round of fixtures. I think a number of the smaller nations saw their opponents were a bit jaded and smelt blood. Hungary ruthlessly dispatched England. You couldn't have had two more contrasting attitudes and energy levels.
A player named czibor said once - "for me, there are no friendly games." When a footballer wears the jersey of his nation, there are no friendly games, i think. Fight, and die on the pitch, if necessary.
@@balintvarady5160 I don't think he'd have to play 70+ games a year back in the day
@@FCGroningen1987 maybe, but still a far more sympathetic and sportsman-like mentality than the englishmen represents.
I honestly can't remember an Alfie take that I didn't agree with. Brilliant breakdown as always.
Adding to your point about back 3s not necessarily being defensive, Cruyff himself used a back 3 in his 343 diamond and had a back 3 with an extra sweeper in his 433, but neither formations were defensive by any means. Having 3 CBs can create a solid platform to defend counters and allow the other 7 players to all push up, whilst also creating a lot of passing options when playing out from the back. Meanwhile Diego Simeone used the 4-4-2 “traditional PL formation” and turned it into one of the most compact defensive units in the world which “only” had 2 CB.
Can you please make a video about that Fredrikstad FK defeated Ajax in 1960 in the European Cup? Fredrikstad was the first Norwegian Club in the European Cup and won 4-3 home vs Ajax and in the second leg Fredrikstad drew 0-0.
My baseball coach would say "the ball is round and it can roll both ways". I think the same applies to football where some days some teams will have a better day than the other team regardless of talent. What Alfie points out is true, we cannot dismiss a team and its accomplishments because of a bad game.
Nah, ball is round and can rolls in any possible way it would.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agree with the rest tho.. 🥂
Just wanna point out that it's not always one or another, not always win or lose, but also a draw.. ☕
@@linuxjodi4311 Good point lol. You can't draw in baseball.
I appreciate what you said in 8:40, this why I don't understand why the value of some English players are higher than they should.
Football TH-cam’s voice of calm and reason 🧘♂️
Most accurate Alfie description I’ve ever seen
He got Middlesbrough relegated to the championship. Oh yeah let’s give him the England job.
Gareth Southgate is like Ollie Gunner. Came in at an absolute low and managed to bring the fun back into football again for so many England fans. Admittedly he did have the easiest run ever and got thrashed twice by Belgium. Euros was even better and we should have won it. Terrible subs for pens decision which cost us. I doubt we’ll ever get that close again. Sadly we all know how Ollie ended and I can see Qatar finishing like that for our man Gareth. P.S. he would struggle to get a job in the Prem
Spot on.
absolutely spot on I think, never really believed in him at the start but he's earnt my respect , when they score recently it has been a good goal, just need to score a bit more but I also agree that u need to be defensively strong as well in a Big tournament
I think the way to look at this is by analysing the games as individual matches by excluding the context of them being at a major tournament.
2018 WC: we needed a last minute winner against a weak Tunisia team, trounced the worst side in the WC, then got outclassed by Belgium. We effectively drew against Colombia because we were content to sit on a one goal lead and couldn't break them down in extra time. We dispatched a very average Sweden side in the quarters. A familiar story in the semis, we scored early and sat back to defend a narrow lead - effectively inviting pressure onto us for most of the game - and then had zero momentum to work with in extra time. Croatia are by no means a bad side, but negative football cost us here - especially considering we were in the driving seat for the first half.
2021 Euros: scraped 1-0s against Croatia and Czech Republic in the groups - in both matches we were the better side but seemed happy to hold a narrow lead, which could easily cost us in the future. We played possibly the most boring game of all time against Scotland, and showed how bad we are at breaking a sitting defence. The team selection and substitutes were far too negative for a game like this. We played well against Germany to be fair, largely controlling the game and deservedly winning - although maybe we got a bit lucky with Germany missing some big chances. We beat Ukraine convincingly, but they're the sort of side we should be winning against. We drew against Denmark, and needed a soft penalty to bail us out - they're by no means a bad side but if we have serious ambitions of doing well we really should be beating them (also what a screamer that freekick was). Italy was almost a copy and paste of the Croatia game three years prior; we scored an early goal and then willingly gave up our forward momentum in favour of sitting back to defend a narrow lead, surprisingly we couldn't do that for 75 minutes and then struggled to do anything while we were on the back foot. We were honestly very fortunate to make it all the way to penalties, where the better team won.
The only match above where we exceeded expectations is the Germany game. That is genuinely the only match we won where we weren't strong favourites. Every other game (barring Ukraine because of the comfortable scoreline) we performed either to par or below expectations. The WC semi and Euros Final were both winnable games - especially because we were ahead for so long in both of them - that were thrown away by poor tactical decisions. There would've been no shame losing to Italy - they were the best team in the tournament and deserved winners - had we made a proper game of it instead of parking the bus in the first half, but Southgate clearly hadn't learnt from the WC semi and was simply too negative.
So has Southgate really achieved much? Or has he simply performed to par, which only seems spectacular because the bar when he joined was "qualify for tournaments", "get past the group stages" and "don't lose to Iceland"?
Not to mention that england only played ONE GAME at euro 2020 not in Wembley, while everyone had to travel all across europe after every game.
Southgate has his favourites and picks them irrespective of form...and he is way too defensive
Could you please do a video on how the world cup would go if each team had to have a manager from their country or something of the sort
It's actually crazy to me that, that isn't a set rule
Going by history, having a manager from the country of origin is usually the best bet. No nation has ever won a WC while being managed by a foreign manager, even counting runners up it's still very rare as only 2 times has a foreign manager led a nation to a WC final. First it was George Raynor with Sweden in 1958 and then Ernst Happel with Netherlands in 1978.
One thing I will say about Southgate. I appreciate him getting us out of a bad batch for years and enjoying the most successful run in decades, that being said though, he’s not a man with the experience of managing a winning team…. It showed in that Euro final, after all the talent, we shut up shop after 1 minute, and played like a relegation team desperate to hold out for the 3 points. You play like that, you’ll come unstuck in the end, great successful teams never play in such a negative way, as the moment you try to hold on to a slim lead, you leave yourself open to unmanageable pressure and will eventually concede, unless you are extremely lucky. Regardless with the talent we have, should never play this way. It’s because of this I feel, Southgate should be appreciated for steadying the ship, but we should capitalise on his success, by bringing in someone who knows how to cross the finishing line and win trophies, otherwise, it’s gonna go down in history as another missed opportunity. The FA don’t have the balls to do this though as they like a yes man, and Southgate would never just step down from the most honourable job in English football as a English National. So unfortunately he’s here to stay, and we’ll be lucky if we ever do bring it home.
That being said we can’t judge these recent games, it’s been such a long season and it’s a joke that these pretty pointless internationals are being played when I’m pretty sure 90% of players just want to go on their holidays and get mentally ready for a new upcoming season. So pay no attention to these recent results as I know their hearts arnt fully in it, why I’ve not bothered watching a single minute of the matches, only checked the scores after the games finished.
Also regarding Harry Kane, he’s 100% our Talisman, but Southgate has no clue how to use him properly, he’s majority of the time playing so deep, in a defensive forward position when he should be leading the line. It’s unreal how many times we have an attack and Kane’s no where to be seen in the box which is equally as mental as setting him as a corner taker. Southgate really needs to watch Spurs, see how Kane and Son play, pick his best equivalent to Son in this squad and work on a partnership between them and attempt to replicate this way of play, but unfortunately that’s way tactically out of Southgate’s depth.
I agree with everything you said. While don’t think he’s a good enough manager to actually take England to a title, he’s certainly been very good at his job. He’s built a strong, stable foundation for this team, and deserves credit for it despite his limitations in attacking ideas.
The main problem I have with Southgate is that his big game management is lacking. We went 1-0 up in both the WC semi and the Euro final and he made wrong decisions and stupid substitutions. It's all well and good getting there but you have to have the nous to win the big games.
Correct. He bottles it at vital moments.
I enjoy your videos usually, this one I think is a bit weaker than usual though, for instance, to make your case that this squad isn't as strong as people are saying, you brushed over the midfield. Rice, Phillips and Bellingham are better than you are giving them credit for, and you're discounting the fact that Foden and Grealish can play in midfield, to give us better ball progression.
It's also not unreasonable to expect that in the 5 years since Southgate has been working with them, he could have improved the Stones and Maguire partnership to the point where he doesn't need to cover for them. As for left back he could utilise Trippier there and build patterns of play around him a la Locatelli for Italy in the Euros.
Southgate simply lacks the tactical nous to get the most out of these players, whether you think they are world class or not.
Exactly spot on
I like Rice and Phillips a lot but I dont think theyre yet on a level of DMs for other nations which include Busquets, Kante, Kimmich and Fabinho for example. I believe theyre more comparable to a Jorginho level player, which in itself isnt limiting, but when you consider that Italy have Verrati and Barella in front of him it changes things.
Bellingham is still too young to be starting for England, despite how mature he seems and the level he plays at, playing for Dortmund as a young star pales in significance to starting for England in terms of pressure and expectation. Grealish and Foden simply arent central midfielders, at least not with the required innate defensive competence to not have the potential to make massive mistakes. Remember Pogba against Switzerland for example.
I agree with you that Trippier should be used as an inverted left back, but clearly deliveries into the box from the left side onto the head of Kane or outstretched leg of Sterling are going to be limited, so we shouldnt pretend that it doesnt have its setbacks. Also we shouldnt assume that Trips is easily convertable into a Spinazzola style player.
Finally, no amount of training or relationship building is going to turn Maguire and Stones into Silva and Marquinhos or Bonucci and Chiellini. However, apart from those two pairings I cant think of many others in international football that are clearly superior to Maguire and Stones. Id argue however that that is in great part due to Southgates management considering that Stones isnt a regular starter for his club, and Maguire consistently has absolute shockers for Utd but seems a changed man in an England shirt.
Overall, I would agree that Alfie's takes are probably too positive about Southgate, especially when it comes to his style of play. The amount of lateral passing does drive me absolutely mental at times. At the end of the day though, international football is largely defensive and I dont think we need to rip everything up and start again. Basically my point is that I think Alfies perspective on the quality and usefullness of our squad is a lot more realistic than what youre describing.
Please tell me you aren’t making a case that Rice Phillips and Bellingham hold even a candle to other international midfields (Italy, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Croatia, France) sure that’s only 6 teams who have (IMO clearly) better midfields but that still ranks us as a team due to go out in the quarter finals on midfield strength alone.
As for playing trippier at left back what a ridiculous statement, in a 3 cb scheme the wing backs need to be able to put in a ball which mandates a player to have their strong foot on the outside. And beyond schematic issues you are talking about playing a player out of position for the few England games that are played compared to his real position playing for Newcastle (presumably every game for them health permitting) which is so incredibly likely to lead to mistakes. If you were to play him out of position it would be as a right sided midfielder to allow space for a TAA for example to bomb down the right knowing someone will be there to cover.
This england team is producing the best results in 70 years with a team worse than that of the previous 30 and at the end of the day that’s the bottom line, love him or hate him no one has done a better job despite everyone having better players.
I believe we'll never ever get a better opportunity to win a major tournament than the final last summer. That was our chance. But we lost the game in the second half when Italy started controlling the midfielder and things needed to be changed. Mancini made the changes that were needed but Southgate didn't. That's where Southgate showed his lack of tactical nous.
However, I'm still split on him and I don't think now is the right time to change it.
I'm also worried about where our goals are coming from if anything happens to Kane.
I'm a huge Southgate advocate, but agree with this. I was screaming for 10 mins before they scored to put an extra man in midfield. But everyone makes mistakes. I feel Southgate gets his highlighted but people ignore the great decisions throughout that led us to be in a position to have a mistake mean so much.. others made mistakes all the way through and never got to that point, but that seems forgotten.
Totally agree with you Alfie. Calm down everyone.
I’m firmly in the Gareth out camp and have been pretty much since he got the job mostly because the way he sets up the team and the football he wants to play is very boring, he doesn’t make the right subs early enough in the game to have an impact and when we are losing I have zero confidence that he knows what to change tactically to turn it around. The squad definitely isn’t world class and I don’t expect us to be winning any tournaments, just want us to play attacking and exciting football.
Makes it even more impressive that he gets to the later stage of the tournaments. Pleanty of more tallented England squads have bottled it earlier on in tournaments. Never rated Southgate, but think about it like Napoleon "is he lucky?". Luck means he has intangeables which effect his team's results in the important games. So he must be doing something right and that works for his squads.
Good grief, I love your videos Alfie; but, there's a considerable bit of copium in this video.
22:10 every team was exhausted going into that national break. it's definitely not an excuse, so I'm glad you're "not" making it.
Thank you so so much...yours point on the current squad and the overachievement from it are absolutely bang on the money. It shocks me how ignorant our fans are...
Agree with every point on this. All I would say is that I'm disappointed sometimes by the attacking players he chooses in the attacking positions. Mason Mount especially gets far more game time than his play deserves.
2nd best England manager well that don't take much does it , saying that I wouldn't put him in the same class of Bobby Robson & Terry Venables .
I only seldom follow football and I always hear "the best squad we've ever had" argument.
Was waiting for this take alf
I get that he’s given you guys great memories, but outside of England he’s regarded as clueless. You have a world-class squad that should be able to win trophies, but you consistently underperform because of the type of football you play. Finally you have a generation of technical gifted players, like Trent, Bellingham, Foden and he prefers to play mediocre players that do as he says. The football you play is cowardly and I really don’t get why people defend him.
A World Cup semi final and a Euros final is constantly underperforming? Damn, we must be really good, given that no other country reached the last four of both.
🤦♂️ The idea of a style or choice of play being "cowardly" is asinine. A style of play is simply that, a style. Just because it doesn't meet your standards of what you enjoy doesn't make it cowardly. It makes it different.
I'm not even English or anything I just find that whole idea ridiculous.
If you want to comment on effectiveness, that's fair. But to justify your critique with a subjective emotional judgement of the football they play invalidates any good point you might make rather than underscoring it.
@@HITCSevens Look at the teams you faced to get there. First real hurdle and you’re out. These hurdles being inferior squads like Croatia and Italy that you should be beating. And that’s me only talking about the results.
@@kyletucker3811 It is an opinion indeed. If find it cowardly and so do many others. If you play like that you should be winning like France and Portugal did. Otherwise what was the point? A final isn’t a result, I know all too well as a Dutchman.
I must have imagined us beating Germany. And our biggest win came in the only game that we didn't play at Wembley.
I’m not English, so I can’t say that I care. As a neutral England are a pretty boring watch in general. I used to like Southgate because he had a selection criteria and stuck by it, now that’s been thrown out of the window. Case and point Harry Maguire. Southgate is a boring coach, now with inconsistent man management.
Brilliant video, very well put - I’d love to hear you on TalkSPORT up against Jamie O’Hara, he was spouting some nonsense after the game the Hungary game the other night.
Half them melts on talksport just chat total waffle lol
@@bricktop. that is very true.
First up. As you say...Southgate's record speaks for itself. Flashback to 1998...me and my best mate compared the England and Svotland teams of that year's World Cup and came to the conclusion that England had better individuals but Scotland were more of a team. Southgate has for the first time I can remember...managed to build an England team that is actually a team. How would this lot match up against the team of '96 or the Sven Goran Ericsson era team? Not sure because Southgate's approach is so different to that of his predecessors.
Yet our Nations League form is still a concern. This is a tournament we have already made the finals of in it's short existence. Yes this is a tough group but to be this deep in a hole with two games to go is not good. We finish bottom, we don't get a chance to win it next time around and at it's best, this is a tournament that is winnable for this England team.
Yes, the timing of these matches is less than ideal but players from other countries have complained about that as well. So either the players are bottling it or Southgate has deliberately decided to write both this and the next Nations League off purely due to the fact that there are no warm up friendlies for the upcoming World Cup. You've implied in your video that you are assuming the latter. Either way, a team as good as the one we saw last year does not turn bad overnight and Southgate has become one of England's footballing immortals whatever happens in Qatar.
I just hope like hell this gamble pays off.
I agree with most of what Alfie says but here the notion of "oh we were so bad in the past so we should be grateful at coming close and failing yet again" doesn't necessarily hold up. Personally he should have probably walked after the Euros and left on a relative high for the next manager to build on this squad to go on and try to compete at the world cup, but this year's tournament is going to be far more different than the others before it, he has two games pretty much to prepare for the tournament in September and then after that the big one kicks in. Mid season might I add.
People who say this is the best team in years are right because they function well as a unit unlike the failed golden generation that had petty club squabbles get in the way of performing well at international level.
I just think he's done a wonderful job of uniting a fractured team given what happened in Euro 2016 but this is as far as he can take them. He's not flexible enough to win a tournament outright with a good bunch and sugarcoating these defeats as "meaningless friendlies" after "a long season" is disrespectful to other countries who've had long seasons themselves so what makes England's case any special?
All I'm saying is, this world cup will be a painful reminder of what should have been done last year. I have absolutely no hope going to Qatar given every context. If he proves me wrong fair enough but as for now, he's running on thin ice.
EDIT: Well my expectations were met and yet again the insistence on failing to read the game cost England. At 1-1 be proactive and make changes in your favour but nope, he reacted too late ONCE AGAIN. He's just not good enough to win something for England I'm sorry.
what a hopeless person
Would losing to a team that failed to qualify for the world cup (despite taking a 1-0 lead against them after 2 minutes and having a 2-1 lead over them in the following penalty shootout) be sackable?
@@yoshiwoollyworld absolutely! Italy were lucky to reach that final if Spain had prime David Villa/ Torres/ Raul upfront not Oyarzabal Italy wouldn't be in those finals and we've all seen how garbage Italy have been since winning that tournament (or even before Euro 2020 really).
Southgate has done well with uniting England as a team but to get to the next level you have to be ruthless and have an edge over your opponent and he doesn't have that or will ever have it. Don't let qualifiers against San Marino fool you.
This is not the best England team in 20 years
😂
35 mins .. This is gonna be a good one.
This is a great analysis
Yeah, looking at how many players in this squad are genuinely world class, compared to the "Golden Generation", and it's more like the most over-hyped team in 20 yrs 😳
“Set piece routines” means falling down to get free kicks then the big guys go up from defence.
The traditional centre forward has gone. Lukaku can’t get a game in England. This means teams try not to cross into the opponents box so going backwards is often seen.
This means England is vulnerable to teams that do go direct, with crosses and long balls, as from Modric to a big attacker.
Lukaku might be big but he's not the target man type anyway. He uses his power for positioning but it (was) is his quality of finishing that made him lethal.
What's worth bearing in mind is that through generation upon generation of England teams said to be stacked with phenomenal talent, it's resulted in one trophy over seven decades of major tournament football.
We are not perennial silverware winners and nor are our sides as good as we'd love to believe. This century alone, a pair of decorated continental managers couldn't do any better than tepid, defensive runs to quarter-finals and that was the luxurious end of it, never mind brollies and Iceland.
Comes a point where if a team regularly reaches the last four of the big events, it must mean the manager in charge for each of them is getting something very right. If Southgate was tactically clueless, we'd barely qualify, let alone anything else.
‘England do not have a midfielder who is a destroyer in the same way as Fernandinho’…
Current transfer news ‘Manchester City looking to sign Kalvin Phillips as a replacement for Fernandinho’.
Southgate is decent as a manager. But he is lucky he has a great core of talent.
If England had a good manager. They would easily win matches and even tournaments. Imagine one of Klopp, Pep, Ancelloti even Jose were England manager. They would be favourites to win the 2022 World Cup.
England just doesn't have that great a squad. Part of the English fans expect their team to win titles with dominant football all around. World cup and Euro cup winners seldomly "impress" and it's usually the team with a solid defense, players in good form and a bit of luck that come out on top. Don't expect players that had a long season, a short vacation and an even longer season ahead of them to be motivated for the Nations League, don't expect national teams to play a solid system (as there is simply no time to drill that into the squad in nation squads) or to have consistant tactics (as head coaches need to adjust their selections based on player form).
Before Southgate, no English coach managed to get to a semi final and final in the EC and WC in ages. The grass is not going to be greener once you put someone else there. You'd still have average at best Pickford at goal and a lot of players that aren't consistant or bench players in the squad. England can be competitive again, but don't expect a spectacle or the team being motivated for friendly games.
No he isn’t good England manager
I don’t think he’s clueless, neither do I think he’s a genius. Far from it.
England has a strong pool of talented players, but I don’t think he’s getting the best from them. It would be crazy to replace him now with the World Cup so close, so let’s see how he does there. Another glorious failure and it’s goodbye Gareth.
Great analysis
I can't understand how English people think that the national team has underachieved under Southgate so far. In 2018, I wouldn't have given them many chances against Colombia until I saw them defeated by Japan. I remember watching that game, and the South Americans looked hopeless in the second half. People forget that they didn't score until the 93rd minute. Also, in the penalties, it is an achievement on its own that they overcame their demons and won the game. In the quarter finals, while I do agree that England was lucky not to face a stronger team on paper (even though I strongly believe that they would've still destroyed that Germany team), they absolutely dominated Sweden. There was simply no moment in which I doubted who would win the tie. In the semis, I think England were the better team until Croatia's first goal. Even though they lost, I believe that Croatia had the better players, and that midfield was, and still is, among the top 5 in the world.
At the Euros, I have to admit that my expectations increased a little. They were now my second favourites to win the whole thing, after France (and they still reached the final, which means that they EQUALLED these expectations). First, they beat Croatia, taking revenge for the WC defeat three years earlier. Then, they drew Scotland and beat Czechia (a team that had arguably the best striker at that tournament). They looked very good against Germany, they destroyed Ukraine (which was by no means a weak team. I watched their game against North Macedonia live and I really liked what I saw) and beat a Denmark team that had a HUGE morale advantage, still dominating that game. Also, even though they didn't seem that strong on paper at the start of the tournament, I actually thought Italy had a better TEAM than England, even though it had worse players. They were a joy to watch, and I think England did a fantastic job neutralising their playing style, only conceding from a corner (or a free kick, I'm not sure). While I do agree Southgate made a mistake asking youngsters to take the 3rd, 4th and 5th penalties, Pickford's performance almost saved them.
All in all, a semifinal and a final cannot be called an underachievement. It doesn't matter what country you are: if you finish in the top four at any given tournament, that is, at the very least, a good performance. I envy you for the fact that you can allow yourself to feel disappointed because of these results from your national team. I would kill for my country to even qualify for a WC. You are not Brazil, or Italy, or Germany, powehouses of the beautiful game for the past 100 years. You are at a similar level to Spain, Uruguay and Argentina: still great, but nobody will think that you deserve to be thought of as THE BEST national team of these 100 years. So please, lower those expectations a bit, and be thankful that you can enjoy this generation. Also, for those who think that this loss against Hungary is catastrophic: it is not. Nobody will remember this game if you do well in the Qatar WC. Nations League is a nice competition, but not an important one. As Alfie once said: just give Southgate a break. Trust him. He surely knows a hell of a lot more football than any of us commenting do.
Ironic how you're failing to see the parallels of this debate and that surrounding Ole at Man United. Honestly the best thing now would be to sack Gareth and appoint either Poch, Eddie Howe or Potter before its too late. You may like the guy and he may have brought a feel good factor around the team but ultimately he doesn't have what it takes to cut it at the highest level (much like Ole) keep him around come December and England will be lucky to get past Round of 16. Pin this comment.
... Did you actually watch the video? That was his conclusion, that its fair to criticize him and even say it might be time he was replaced. His issue was with hyperbolic statements as if the man was the worst England manager ever.
@@kyletucker3811 had you watch the video, you would find that he suggests that Gareth has earned the right to take the team to Qatar, and I'm pointing out that he's forgetting that similar sentiments were being advanced for Ole. What I'm saying is he's gonna be sacked sooner or later, I'd prefer sooner. Maybe process stuff before commenting.
Surely Rangnick did much better afterwards? As a dutch person, I can assure you Ten Hag is no guarantee to be the panacea either. Poch is not taken seriously at all at PSG and wants to play a specific system. You can't get national squads to play high press systems like clubs can due to lack of time, squad consistency and you'd need all members of the squad to be able and willing to do it. Coaches are still just dependent on their material. Teams that win major tournaments are defensively solid and usually a bit lucky. France did not impress once when they won the world cup 4 years ago.
England fans should accept their squad isn't that good and that nation level football will never come close to club football.
The best England squad in years Is mainly due to the attacking talent. It's the idea of playing to your strengths instead of shoring up your weaknesses.
Southgate will play 7 defensive minded players and hope our supreme attacking talent will bail us out or a big lad will score from a set piece. I saw that for years with Ole and I'm fucking tired of it.
Southgate has done well and made a lot of people hope again, but I can't ever see him being the man to take us to a title. Why keep a person who is unlikely to ever win something when you can roll the dice and maybe hit the jackpot
No new manager will be able to get the team ready so close to the World Cup. Maybe if we perform poorly but its not the time now.
@@Solarislikestoplay I agree it's probably too close to blow everything up and start again, even though i'd love to see it happen
While I don't think Southgate is a tactical genius by any means, he has done fantastically well in what is arguably the toughest job in world football. With more exciting and tactically astute players like Bellingham and Abraham he can surely reach new heights.
You are absolutely right about Fernando Santos 😔