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When Southgate became England manager, he ditched the likes of Rooney etc….. It was a breath of fresh air when we had a good mix of youth leading into the 2018 World Cup. There was a feel good factor in the country as players were no longer picked on reputation, and the people got behind them.
It was a píss easy group to get out of, and we ended up in the ‘easy side’ of the draw. We played an average Colombia in the last 16 and an even more average Sweden in the last 8. We lost to Croatia in the semis, but I gave Southgate credit for galvanising the nation, and rekindling the love for the national team again.
In the Euro’s in 2021, we had another easy group. We then had to play the second worst German team in my memory at home in the last 16, followed by an absolute bang average Ukraine in the last 8, followed by a slightly impressive Denmark in a home semi final. The final vs Italy still boils my píss to this day. Going 1-0 up after 2 minutes against an ageing defence, Southgate should’ve gone for the jugular. But no, we went all defensive, and tried to defend our way through to 90 minutes. Southgate shít the bed that night so to speak. We’ve never really recovered from it either.
World Cup 2022 we had yet another easy group. We then came up against Senegal in the last 16, and then France in the last 8. Southgate’s substitutions baffled me vs France. He took Saka off who was giving their left back a torrid time. We lost impetus after that. We still had a late penalty to take it into extra time though.
Onto Euro 2024. Southgate hasn’t got a clue what his best team is. His squad is unbalanced. He named a crock left back, with no back up left back named. He then played Trent Alexander Arnold, who’s actually a right back, in midfield vs Serbia & Denmark. He actually called it an experiment. In an interview after the Denmark game, Southgate said we’ve never found a replacement for Kalvin Phillips. Jesus bloody wept. 😡😡
Phil Foden is absolutely wasted out on the left as he has no proper left back to support him. Nearly every tv pundit, be it Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Ian Wright or Gary Neville, have said that Bellingham should drop into the middle with Rice, and Foden should play the No10.
We’ve made bloody hard work winning the group, and we’ve been extremely lucky with the side of the draw we’re on.
Unless he grows a backbone and makes some changes, it’s going to be dire again vs Slovakia on Sunday. Slovakia will play with 2 banks of 4 behind the ball, and try and hit us on the break. We’ve struggled to break teams down thus far. I can see extra time and penalties. If he’s brave, and changes it up a bit, I think we’d win comfortably.
The upshot is, England have some fantastic players, and they should be one of the best teams to watch. Southgate gets paid around £5-6m per year to pick the best team and system, but he’s sadly lacking in this department. He’s fallen into the trap of most England managers of the past by trying to pick his so called best players. In doing so, he’s putting square pegs in round holes. The team is very unbalanced as a consequence.
I’ll just finish with a story Jack Charlton told years ago. When he was being picked in the lead up to the 1966 World Cup, Jack knew he wasn’t in the top few best English centre halves in the country. He actually asked Alf Ramsey why he was being picked. Alf Ramsey told him that he knows he’s not the best centre half in the country, but he was the best for what he wanted him to do.
You can see why Alf Ramsey won a World Cup. But for Gordon Banks suffering from food poisoning, he could’ve won us back to back World Cups.
It shows that the best players on paper are not necessarily the best players for the team.
One thing that really pìssed me off yesterday was Jude Bellingham when tackled, not getting the free kick, and then just petulantly sitting there with his arms out glaring at the referee. He did this 2 or 3 times. On one of those occasions, the ball came back to where he was sitting, and he didn’t move.
I don’t know whether he’s getting too big for his boots, but that’s was totally unacceptable behaviour.
If, and it’s a big if, Marti Cifuentes departs for Sunderland or whoever, I’d trust our new look board with their new analytics to find a good successor.
There is only one guarantee regarding the outcome of this general election. Whoever gets in, be it, Labour, Conservative, or a coalition, they’ll absolutely screw us.
Out of 650 or so MPs in parliament, there’s probably only a handful of honorable ones.
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