This criticism of Southgate

I keep reading about us having only one proven international striker as if it's a new thing. It's always been the case, for some managers we didn't have one particularly outstanding one. When we won the big one in 1966 the 'proven international striker' didn't play.

Have a look at the ages in that side and how many caps some of them had one between them, look at the clubs they came from.

Southgate has an exciting bunch of young players to choose from, the Premier League is a strong league and that's where all but one come from. My only question with regards to the squad is why are we only taking one left back?

All managers are criticised, why shouldn't they be, and during Siuthgate's time in charge of Boro there's a lot to criticise him for. He dismantled a side and failed badly to rebuild.

With England he's had a good run but the fixtures have been kind in both finals, that's been pretty obvious. We have a good draw this year too, hopefully he doesn't freeze when we're in with a chance if a prize
 
MolteniArcore said:
Yes, that's why I said if I was him I'd resign after the WC.

They always hold on for too long.
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All due respect I don’t believe if you were England Manager you would walk away

Professional sportspeople have utmost confidence in their ability, couple that with the biggest job it would be for an Englishman no chance me or you would walk it away from it
 
GazC_MFC said:
All due respect I don’t believe if you were England Manager you would walk away

Professional sportspeople have utmost confidence in their ability, couple that with the biggest job it would be for an Englishman no chance me or you would walk it away from it
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You might be right. I think it's called ego. That's probably why they all end up getting sacked. Oh and wanting their contracts paying out rather than walking and losing the money!
 
An England and Middlesbrough legend. I have no issues with the squad and I believe Southgate deserves to be leading us into this World Cup. People need to put some respect on his name.

I did think the euros were ultimately a failure given Italy were there for taking in the first half and our penalty takers were poor but on reflection still an achievement to get there and take it to the wire.

Let’s see how he does in this tournament and go from there. I reckon Euro 2024 we will have a real chance.
 
GazC_MFC said:
If Southgate was so poor why did it take 3 years to take us down. Robbo took a better team down

Southgate has found a winning formula with what I would say is the 6th/7th best squad in the world.

People can say he got lucky draws
On tournaments, but getting to the nations league finals proves that even with a tough draw he brought some success.

His qualification record is the best out there. We pump ordinary teams

International football is tough against the top teams, your literally playing against some of best assembled squads in the world, so ye they may be able to make England look a little bland

People just have this bias towards Southgate when we went down, and it clouds their judgement
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Southgate was starting from the top, literally our peak as a football club. It was all downhill once he took over and we still haven't recovered. Robson was starting with a midtable championship team, won the league at the first attempt, played some incredible football, made some incredible signings and got us to multiple cup finals and very nearly won one. We only got relegated on a technicality as well. We had enough points to stay up and when he did get us relegated he got us straight back up (and another cup final).

Southgate wasn't ready to be a manager. It was too big a job too soon for him and going from player to manager at the same club is probably harder than coming in to a club as manager. That failure is all on Gibson but make no mistake, Southgate was a total disaster.
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Totally untrue
I really want England to do well but can’t ignore Southgate has become the tactical problem
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Cognitive dissonance.
We hadn't won a single knockout game in twelve years pre Southgate.
Not a single one in 6 tournaments.
We've won 5 in 2 tournaments since, the same amount we won in the 30 years before Southgate took over.
We reached our first final in 55 long years.
Gareth has massively, massively overacheived, especially considering he has a weaker squad than many of his predeccesors.
 
Bernieslavenschin said:
I’m torn on this. Always liked the guy for obvious reasons but didn’t rate him as Boro manager.

As an England manager it becomes harder.

For me the current England team plays an unnecessarily bland form of football given the talent within the team.
I believe we’ve had two relatively good cup draws in the last two tournaments and not winning something during this time period of talented players, while I wouldn’t call it a failure, I also wouldn’t call it success.

I think the team has benefited from years of apathy from the media and general public, leading to low expectations, then coupled together with a few good results this opinion has swung back around.

Having said all that previous England managers with similar teams and results are not thought of as failures nor have they received undue criticism. So I think it would be unfair to level too much criticism at Southgate.

I just can’t help think what might have been had we played a bit more positively and will continue to wish to see England win something, rather than settle for a Semi (oooo matron)
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Totally agree with this.

All these posts of 'Southgate is the most successful England manager since 1966' is just nonsense. He's won the exact same as all the others - absolutely sweet FA.

And I agree, I just wish he was more positive, especially in that final (v Italy) and semi (v Croatia).
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
Absolute nonsense.

It's akin to calling those hurt by the criticism 'snowflakes'.

Everyone has the right to criticise.
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I agree with that, no one should be above criticism, but then by the same token no one should be below praise. Some criticism of Southgate is warranted, but i dont think thats the problem. Its people who steadfastly refuse to give him any praise whatsoever for his very obvious acheivements.
 
The Card Cheat said:
I agree with that, no one should be above criticism, but then by the same token no one should be below praise. Some criticism of Southgate is warranted, but i dont think thats the problem. Its people who steadfastly refuse to give him any praise whatsoever for his very obvious acheivements.
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I agree with that, he's done ok as an international manager but like all but one before has won nothing. It's not fair to compare him to earlier managers where the number of qualifying teams was lower and of a higher standard. We've won more knockout phase games recently because we're up against easier opposition since the competitions expanded.

As much as it's wrong to unjustly criticise it's wrong to over egg the team's success.
 
locomansimon said:
Sir Alf Ramsey !
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If it had been Southgate who'd won the World Cup in '66, people round here would say it was luck, and instead they'd focus on the defeat against Poland and subsequent sacking of '73, thus declaring him a failure.
 
HarryVegas said:
If it had been Southgate who'd won the World Cup in '66, people round here would say it was luck, and instead they'd focus on the defeat against Poland and subsequent sacking of '73, thus declaring him a failure.
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No they wouldn’t, you’ve made yourself look silly with that and completely devalued any of your other arguments that actually had merit in the process.
 
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