I guess that's answered my points. He really doesn't rate our CBs or Midfielders at all. If you don't rate your spine, you always, always go negative.
No I don't, but you need ball players to play through a press. Pair 2 midfielders with a ball carrier, a Barkley or whoever. Playing DM, after DM, after DM... only so many times you can cover defensive before you've literally no ability to give the ball to the players who score goals. He's terribly negative.
Killed us before a ball has been kicked. Look at that midfield we don't have anyone who can pass or play in tight spaces. No Coady in the back three. He likes Mount cant he at least put him in Rice's role? No one can defend this.
If we push aside Trippier as a left back and the extremely defensive, ridiculously conservative setup, there are at least 3 players in this team badly out of form (Pickford, Maguire, Walker), Henderson has been injured, and there are some who have not performed for England recently like Rice, Dier or Rashford.
Plenty of managers don’t rate their options against elite teams but picking 7 defensive options out of the 10 outfield players? That is the tactics of Gibraltar. I know it’s Twitter but Southgate is getting ripped to shreds on there. He’s always talking about avoiding press/fan negativity (mentioned it as reasoning for the Denmark tactics) but he’s bringing it on himself and the team. Especially individuals who will likely have a hard match today (the CM’s).
For the life of me I cannot work out how Southgate feels we have better options for 3-4-3 than 4-3-3, when our back up in one of the key positions for his 3-4-3 is an out of position Kieran Trippier. No Saka even in the squad so if Trippier is struggling for width there's no options to even replace him. Not too mention he said we need to get our forward 3 on the pitch.....except we're not doing that. We're having to play Mount there. More than anything I would like to know what happened in his 4-3-3 that he feels was so bad he needed to change. Does he think he got good results and lots of goals in that system by fluking it? I'm genuinely interested. Seems like anyt bad performance in a 3 man defence he will write off as something that will improve in time, but the same luxury isn't given to 4-3-3.
I really wish I didn’t care about England. How many games at senior or youth level do you endure. Already knowing before the game that it will be like pulling teeth
Why do they always, always revert to type. It's actually insane. We just don't produce any good coaches - coaching system needs a revamp.
I respect him for the fact he's brought in alot of younger players. Which is positive. But his tactical nouse and fear factor will be our downfall. He needs an experienced head alongside him to show him where he's going wrong such as a hoddle or wenger. Not yes men like what Taylor had in the 90s
Where have you heard that ?? I can’t find anything about Grealish having any kind of problem apart from Southgate being the manager
But what do you expect from a defensive minded person and an ex CB ?? When has he ever excelled at managing - even at club level ?? He’s just a yes man , a safe pair of hands who won’t embarrass England OFF the pitch ..
I’m so despondent ... I was so looking forward to a new England tonight .. I actually expected Coady to play if we played a back three and I was certain Jack Grealish would play whatever the system
Coady is the weirdest omission as he plays 3 at the back every week. He the best long passer out of all the defenders too which is what you need if you want to counter. I think Phillips over Rice too.
Don't really get the yes man criticism. A yes man would just pick the team that pleased everyone for an easy life. Hodgson did that to often making poor tactical decisions (far too attacking world cup 2014), Rooney in midfield Euro 2016 for example after criticism for being too negative much to his cost. Southgate's biggest problem is he seems to approach matches most concerned about how teams will hurt us (often creating more weaknesses by doing so) rather than how we can hurt other teams. We have what is arguably the best attack in the world and should be doing everything to get the best out of it. Not trying to reduce our goals against per game from 0.8 to 0.7.
But playing to counter attacks is not equal to playing ultra defensively and hoping a lanky target man will put his head in a cross once. This is the tactics of the likes of Northern Ireland.
No? DCL is exactly the kind of forward the Portuguese would love in their system. Mourinho would love him. They are the masters of low block football.