Does anybody get the Southgate criticism…

It's baffling.

He was getting slaughtered after we were an inch of a post away from winning our first trophy in 55 years.

Never gets the credit but gets all of the criticism.

The most baffling being the people who complain the he's playing Kane all the time.

Mental that a manager would play the best English striker of a generation whenever he could.
 
He's done a brilliant job there's no doubt about that. Qualification is now an absolute breeze under him and it looks like we're going that way again. In tournaments we've gone from being terrible, despite at times having some quality players, to being a team that is getting to the latter stages and has only missed out on small margins. I think we'll justifiably be 2nd favourites going into the Euros.
 
He's done a brilliant job there's no doubt about that. Qualification is now an absolute breeze under him and it looks like we're going that way again. In tournaments we've gone from being terrible, despite at times having some quality players, to being a team that is getting to the latter stages and has only missed out on small margins. I think we'll justifiably be 2nd favourites going into the Euros.
Exactly this. All the people making comments that we are underachieving with the current squad need to remember the quality of some of the squads in the past that have either not qualified for a tournament or have been awful when we have got there. We are not underachieving. We have been fine margins away from winning two major tournaments. Not many England teams can say that
 
Hate seems popular unfortunately. I think he has done and continues to do a fantastic job with the players at his disposal, particularly in defence. I know many on here still seem to have a degree of anger regarding his first managerial appointment.

He was slated by many of the Boro faithful, incredibly harshly imo, as I have discussed many times in the past, when in truth (well my truth anyway) he was only given the job because he was our Captain, talisman and a useful stooge whilst cost cutting was undertaken till we eventually got the team we could afford. He was wrongly hounded for something he had little control over as far as I was concerned then, and the background noise is ramping up somewhat now, despite him being one of the most successful managers in Englands history. In the words of Joni Mitchell “You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”.

Boro has an arguably proud history in our connection with England and I am sure our current hero will add to that list at some future point. Nearly all managers fail at some point, Southgate will do well to go out on a high if he can somehow muster a trophy. He will be gone soon enough, to be replaced by the next target, but I for one will always respect him for everything he tried to achieve with Boro and England.
 
I genuinely don't think Southgate has much other than deserved approval, recognition and support.
I don't listen to Talksport, I never see The Sun, Mail or other tabloid. I've never been attracted to GB News. I'm not engaged with Twitter or Facebook.
In conversations I have with friends, people I meet, or in engaging with the rest of the media, I don't see this opposition to Southgate.
I think he rightly gets great respect. I think that respect is growing.
Football is the national obsession and as such there will always be opinion, challenge and argument. There will be passion. Long may that continue.
Read some of the comments on the BBC wesite indeedio - absolutely awful and without any thought to them.
 
It's baffling.

He was getting slaughtered after we were an inch of a post away from winning our first trophy in 55 years.

Never gets the credit but gets all of the criticism.

The most baffling being the people who complain the he's playing Kane all the time.

Mental that a manager would play the best English striker of a generation whenever he could.
He’s not just the best of a generation in my view, he’s the best striker I’ve seen in an England shirt and consistent with it as well. Surely only Arsenal fans (and only the daft ones) would even contemplate questioning his selection.
 
I didn't bother watching England this international break so don't have much right to criticise, but what on earth is Kalvin Phillips doing in the squad when he hasn't kicked a ball all season?
 
I'll not lie, I did question his mental state when he was choosing a player who had not accumulated 60 minutes of first team football 3/4 of the way through the season on Thursday night.

It paid off, however that last 20 minutes must have been the longest of Kalvin's career.

I am glad for Southgate, I think he has provided some stability to the England team and created excitement within a generation of young supporters.
Agreed, it was 'bold' but I guess it shows that a manager who sees a player train has far better information than the general public.

He'd not have been my choice for manager..
me neither, and it was only supposed to be temporary. But he did so well that he had to be kept on. When people talka bout the style of football, they forget that we could have been watching Sam Allardyces England launching it up to a target man and bypassing this generation of attacking talented 10s and wide midfielders.

Personally I think international football is largely dull, it's largely defensive. Brazil tried to spice it up with flair but then went 26 years without winning it until they had the pragmatic Dunga team grind out a world cup win. You can't be successful at international level stretching the game and playing 100 mph football. Because the forwards on both sides are good enough to take advantage so it becomes a lottery of key moments.

Anyway, on he roles, more qualifying wins and goals, just one qualifying loss in 29 games now (compare that to Ramsay losing 3 in 20). More finals competition wins and goals than any other manager. 2 of our 4 best tournament finishes. Only ever lost to the winners/finalists in any finals competition. The records keep falling, and we have one foot in the euro finals after just 2 games. A remarkable record.
 
I didn't bother watching England this international break so don't have much right to criticise, but what on earth is Kalvin Phillips doing in the squad when he hasn't kicked a ball all season?
He trusts him and believes he's done a good job before. I'm not convinced by Phillips, but I have no issue with Southgate's policy. He seems to have a good balance of providing consistency with selections, hence building and developing a team, and also giving caps to players coming through.
 
He trusts him and believes he's done a good job before. I'm not convinced by Phillips, but I have no issue with Southgate's policy. He seems to have a good balance of providing consistency with selections, hence building and developing a team, and also giving caps to players coming through.
He clearly has a system, and needs players that know that system. It means players have to come in for 3 or 4 squads before he can trust them mind. But it makes sense. Philips needs to leave Man City and play next year to stay in that squad though.
 
I didn't bother watching England this international break so don't have much right to criticise, but what on earth is Kalvin Phillips doing in the squad when he hasn't kicked a ball all season?

There are only a handful of English defensive midfielders in top flight football.
 
There are only a handful of English defensive midfielders in top flight football.
true, Southgate was right the other day when he decried the number of regular starters in the prem. It also shows that there is a real lack of depth beyond the core squad, some key positions have real weaknesses behind a veneer of quality.
 
If we are midtable in the premier League in 2 years time, there will be a sizeable groundswell for carrick to be sacked.
I very much doubt that. Do you mean something like:
- Promoted this season.
- Prem survival next season.
- 10th place the season after.

Unless by 'sizeable groundswell' you mean 'a handful of nutters'.
 
I very much doubt that. Do you mean something like:
- Promoted this season.
- Prem survival next season.
- 10th place the season after.

Unless by 'sizeable groundswell' you mean 'a handful of nutters'.
I think we have far more than a handful of nutters at our club :ROFLMAO: God forbid if he agrees to the players taking the knee, he'll be hounded out.
 
Southgate has won more games as England manager than anyone other than Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey. He's also got a better win percentage than any England manager who's managed more than one game, except Fabio Capello.

So he's literally one of the top 2 or 3 England managers of all time.

As others have said, he's made qualification for major tournaments into a breeze. Under virtually every other England manager I can remember, we were always on tenterhooks, not sure whether we were even going to get to these tournaments.

So I also don't get all the criticism of him.
 
It's absolutely part of the culture war. He is intelligent, articulate, a professional, an expert. He is also a person who supports kneeling, has no tolerance for racism in any form. He's exactly the kind of person that the right wing culture warrior would hate. Now that isn't to say everyone that hates him is a right wing nutjob, but most
I tend to agree that this forms an element of it amongst certainly people.

I’ve also noticed a similar correlation between those who also like to criticise Marcus Rashford for some of the work he’s done in the past - certainly during the pandemic around free school meals etc.

“He’s just doing it to boost his own profile. I bet he’s making money on the back of all the good ‘charity’ work he’s doing. Another millionaire expecting other people to pay for other people’s kids” is a few lines I’ve heard before.

This is where some elements of society are headed though - driven by an awful media. I have a feeling that if it was Jack Grealish on the same campaign, nobody would bat an eye lid.

As presented below (sorry for the awful DM links).

There’s the same anti-Southgate sentiment. For some it is football driven, for some it’s because of his words, not actions.

White man buys large house - “Aw he’s growing his own vegetables as well”


Black men buy houses…

“Campaigning but he’s still got a load of cash himself to splash on houses - hypocrite”


“Crap footballer rubs your nose in it by getting England knocked out and buying a flash house”

 
Some of us were urging him to drop Sterling.

It wasn't something I agreed with, but there's at least a logic to that.

Sterling has plenty of flaws and there are alternative players who you could argue would do better.

Kane is the most complete striker England have, he can shoot with both feet, can score with head, can hold the ball up, can start attacks and finish them, and has reached 20+ goals in each of the last 9 seasons.
His only real weaknesses are a slight lack of pace and he's a bit rubbish at free kicks.
There is not currently a better English striker than him.
 
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