When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
Heard Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both talk about how they practiced penalties before World Cup games so that’s wrong for a start.
It isn't wrong - it wasn't practised to the same level. It is the weaker penalty takers that benefit from this most. Of course both Shearer and Lineker practised penalties a lot. They were both great penalty takers - but that is credit to them rather than the managers.
Give me an example of an England manager telling his players not to practice penalties. We’re GL and AS going against their managers Wishes ? Of course not. Any player entering into a knock competition practices penalties.
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
Heard Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both talk about how they practiced penalties before World Cup games so that’s wrong for a start.
It isn't wrong - it wasn't practised to the same level. It is the weaker penalty takers that benefit from this most. Of course both Shearer and Lineker practised penalties a lot. They were both great penalty takers - but that is credit to them rather than the managers.
Give me an example of an England manager telling his players not to practice penalties. We’re GL and AS going against their managers Wishes ? Of course not. Any player entering into a knock competition practices penalties.
It isn't about not practising but not embracing the science of penalties and over practising them. Here is an example of a manager not doing so!
Yes, but his story is illustrative. Hoddle was one of the better England managers tactically but he chose the penalty takers just before the shoot out. Southgate drills the penalties into the side. They know before the game the order of takers and that is the order they will take them unless a player is injured or not right - then it goes down the list. The weaker takers also know where they are going to put it before the game starts. They will have practised penalties so much that that in itself will have given them confidence. With small margins, this can make the difference.
All the recent tournaments I have heard the players talk about how they have practised penalties including recreating the walk from the half way line etc.
Sports scientists have not been listened too enough because old school managers tend to be stubborn. Southgate listens to them. Over learning is what people like Beckham did off his own bat with free-kicks. We don't see that and put it all down to god given talent. It may be part of it, but boring, boring repetition and hard work is teh other part.
You don't ask players who fancy it in terms of penalties at the end of a game - the players are on a list and the weaker ones know where they are putting it before the game starts. When Dier stepped up against Colombia - he was simply next on the list in relation to available players!
More than that, Southgate looked at them again to decide whether they were mentally ready to take one after extra time.
I'm still very torn on him as the holding midfielder. I've long felt that Henderson does the difficult things really well (this being a great example, the ball of the top for Sterling was brilliant).
But there are also so many times when the back three has it that he's not looking to pick it up from them, create triangles, or just keep it moving. It was worse in the Colombia game, where for large stretches he just stood behind Quintero, a man not known for his workrate.
I know the holding role is not his natural position, and that it's tricky when playing with a back three, and certainly very different than it is with Liverpool in the Prem, but I still feel like that's missing out of his game--where and when to get the ball from his defense and what to do with it. And I do think it can provide a weakness for England--cutting off defense from midfield, which Colombia did a good job at trying to take advantage of.
In that order of who have performed for England at their given role and can face little to no criticism in any game
Stones definitely. Walker hasn't done much wrong either considering he's playing out of position. Lingard works tirelessly as well.
Disagree on Walker - he is the one that worries me, and has made two bad errors (penalty vs Tunisia and the ball giveaway vs Columbia)
Has a slightly impetuous and reckless side to his game, that may cost us yet.
Would also have liked to have seen him use his explosive pace to get forward more, on the channel inside Trippier - similar to Stones on the other side.
Well i didn't say he'd been faultless! But 2 mistakes in 4 matches, one of which i thought was harsh, and the other which came to nothing isn't that bad. And as i say, he is playing out of position.
But yeah i agree he could get forward more, unless he's been specifically told not to by Southgate.
In that order of who have performed for England at their given role and can face little to no criticism in any game
Stones definitely. Walker hasn't done much wrong either considering he's playing out of position. Lingard works tirelessly as well.
Disagree on Walker - he is the one that worries me, and has made two bad errors (penalty vs Tunisia and the ball giveaway vs Columbia)
Has a slightly impetuous and reckless side to his game, that may cost us yet.
Would also have liked to have seen him use his explosive pace to get forward more, on the channel inside Trippier - similar to Stones on the other side.
This. Walker is the one player that concerns me. He is not a defender.
In that order of who have performed for England at their given role and can face little to no criticism in any game
Stones definitely. Walker hasn't done much wrong either considering he's playing out of position. Lingard works tirelessly as well.
Disagree on Walker - he is the one that worries me, and has made two bad errors (penalty vs Tunisia and the ball giveaway vs Columbia)
Has a slightly impetuous and reckless side to his game, that may cost us yet.
Would also have liked to have seen him use his explosive pace to get forward more, on the channel inside Trippier - similar to Stones on the other side.
This. Walker is the one player that concerns me. He is not a defender.
He’s the weak link. Just imagine Gomez in this defence, would’ve completed it
Southgate knew the inherent weaknesses England had and designed a system to negate them. More than that, he turned them into strengths. Cast your minds back and think of the concerns about centre backs and midfield. Playing three central defenders at the back, with one of the three being a pacy wide defender - your get out of jail card. brings defensive stability. The system also allows for players like Stones and Maguire to be extra midfielders - a midfield that already has three in it. Add to that our attacking players and wide players being a previous strength, the system is simple but brilliant.
When the bloke finally comes home, we ought to send him to negotiate Brexit!
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Lucky enough to have a conditional ticket for the semi and final and gambled on my semi flight on Fri.
Going to book another single back for the Tue after the final just in case.
This is turning into an unexpectedly expensive month........but my god it could be worth it.
A relatively straightforward win in as much as any of these games are straight forward.
Onto Croatia. That will be tough but we are in there with a chance.
We would all have taken a semi final a few weeks back.
Lot of very disappointed people out there. Few of my mates booked flights hoping they would secure more.
But there are also so many times when the back three has it that he's not looking to pick it up from them, create triangles, or just keep it moving. It was worse in the Colombia game, where for large stretches he just stood behind Quintero, a man not known for his workrate.
I know the holding role is not his natural position, and that it's tricky when playing with a back three, and certainly very different than it is with Liverpool in the Prem, but I still feel like that's missing out of his game--where and when to get the ball from his defense and what to do with it. And I do think it can provide a weakness for England--cutting off defense from midfield, which Colombia did a good job at trying to take advantage of.
Kane
Trippier
Maguire
Henderson
In that order of who have performed for England at their given role and can face little to no criticism in any game
Walker hasn't done much wrong either considering he's playing out of position.
Lingard works tirelessly as well.
Has a slightly impetuous and reckless side to his game, that may cost us yet.
Would also have liked to have seen him use his explosive pace to get forward more, on the channel inside Trippier - similar to Stones on the other side.
But yeah i agree he could get forward more, unless he's been specifically told not to by Southgate.
You normally only pick top 5
Stones
Linegard
Young
All performed well just not as well as the other 5
When the bloke finally comes home, we ought to send him to negotiate Brexit!