Southgate is a shit manager

[Daniel Quinn]

He may be no good at football management, but he does appear to be a thoroughly decent human being.

[antonio66]

I generally agree with you Mr Quinn, he's a very negative manager, what the hell was he doing not bringing on subs before Italy scored, we badly needed someone to get us back in the game, too late when we conceded the goal: He has tried numerous players, you would have thought he could have chosen a more 'attack' minded line-up from the off, this may or may not have worked but I'd rather see England go down playing good football: Mr Slinger, I agree with you about Kane not being a good captain, Jordan Henderson may be a good captain, if only he could play football (he may have improved since I last saw him for England, but then he was diabolical)
I'm a believer in picking strikers in form, more so than any other position, not what they've done in the past, Kane would not have been in my starting eleven, he looked tired, not the quickest of forwards, which is something I always look for in a striker

[NSNO2021]

Footy fans agreeing ~ what ever next. Agree Kane is an odd choice for captain, ditto he looked tired and badly in need of a long rest. My take on the final is, it was there to be won and had Southgate used his subs even half as well as Mancini England would have won. I honestly think England had a better squad for the game but Italy had a better and far more experienced manager and that's why they won.

[savvypaul]

I disagree about Kane. Having your best player as captain is rarely a problem and there have been plenty strikers captain tournament winning teams

I'd like to see Grealish get a lot more game time.

[CycleCoach]

I happen to think that Southgate is an exemplary coach and manager.
I love how he concentrates on bringing through youth. (Those of us who remember the early 70s when we kept soldiering on with the remnants of the '66 side will know of what I speak.)
And I also love the fact that he picks "his own team," in his own way. At Italia' 90 Robson basically picked whoever the papers suggested, (although we nearly got away with it.)
The truth is that the players didn't quite rise to the challenge on that day, and it is easy to blame the manager for that.
But really: we lost on penalties. And despite what people say, that really could have gone either way.

[Daniel Quinn]

Yes, but given the footballers we have, we should have won 3-0.

[CycleCoach]

Yes, but given the footballers we have, we should have won 3-0.

Really? Italy base their whole ethos on defending, so that sounds bit optimistic.
I think on a good day we could have won the game though.

[Daniel Quinn]

1-0 in 5 mins , if we had carried on attacking with speed and skill we would have been 3-0 be time. half

[CycleCoach]

Italy did better at the energy management.
And they had an extra 24 hours recovery time from the semis.

England had one bad half in the entire tournament. The 2nd half of the final.

Footballers and ex footballers tend to be thick. And Southgate may have been rather tired. Any clear thinking person with an understanding of football would have brought on England subs 10 minutes into the 2nd half of the final.

But then again, most of Southgate's decisions leading up to the final worked out very well.

Let's see how England do in Qatar next year. That's assuming England qualify.

It's funny how they used to go on about the golden generation of Gerard and Lampard. And yet, relative to other teams, I think that England in 2021 have a better set of players than they did in 2006.

It's also funny that when England had Capello as a manager - a man with a CV that's at least as good as Mancini's - England didn't get anywhere close to a final.
Same with Sven-Goran.

[Copperblue]

I agree with the premise that Southgate is not a top drawer football manager - however he seems to be a decent bloke with very good image and media management.

Italy were the better team in the final and were the first top team that England had faced in the competition. Italy had to beat Belgium and Spain before getting to the final. They were probably the best team in the whole tournament:

England’s football was pedestrian in the main - defensive and relying on Sterling’s pace and occasional “stumbles” to get to the final. The main issues England have had in major tournaments are: 1) overall inflation of the quality of English players 2) The inability to control and keep the football when playing top opposition in big matches. This was clearly evident as the match went on vs Italy.

Having said all that, England do have some good attacking players but they currently do not have a manger that knows how to use them.