One thing I would say is that whenever you are left wondering something or facing a question, it’s important to ask yourself how others may/would answer it. Interestingly, I have just looked at some of the reports about Germany’s defeat to Spain in 2008. To be honest, I didn’t watch that final, but from what I read it sounds like Spain were dominant and well deserved victors. Germany didn’t panic in the aftermath of that game though, they kept faith in their process and got rewarded six years later. Whilst we clearly need to go up a gear on the evidence of last night, we need to stop having these root and branch reforms after every big defeat in a tournament. Pick an identity and stick to it rather than flip flopping every few years.
We need a manager with a more detailed tactical plan, a keeper that's better with his feet and a press resistant midfielder.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...hgate-must-stay-as-england-manager-euro-2024/ Jamie Carragher basically saying build the team around Bellimgham and Foden and Keep Southgate as Potter was useless at Chelsea and a Foreigner is the wrong idea. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/07/15/gary-lineker-gareth-southgate-quit-england/ Gary Lineker wants Juergen Klopp. Why do people think the FA will hire him? Alan Shearer wants Eddie Howe to quit his beloved Newcastle to take over and Micah Richards wants Pep Guardiola.
It’s hard to win fans playing nations league and qualifiers. Unless you get a freak result like Germany 1-5 England. The quality of opposition is often just not good enough, And there is a fire chance the next manager gets constant clickbait criticism because they not the big name people want.
So much of the fall-out from England’s Euro 2024 final defeat is focusing on the manager. This is an obsession in English football, but it misses the point.Why not look at the victorious Spanish side to try and learn a few lessons?🧵 pic.twitter.com/LlJFxcCrTd— Training Ground Guru (@ground_guru) July 15, 2024 Thought this was a good read and quite detailed into our failures….
The way pundits hype up Foden undeservingly is really grating and has been a theme throughout this Euros. The bar for him to receive showering praise is so much lower than it is for everyone else and he never gets anywhere near the criticism others do. He's the one attacker who hasn't delivered an impactful moment in this tournament and he's underperformed significantly. In no way should we be building anything around him. Palmer has been way more incisive with a fraction of his minutes. The perception of what Foden is compared to the player he actually is, is genuinely miles apart.
EBS won't like this! I went to the 2014 WC in Brazil and watched England fail to win a game with Roy Hodgson saying he was delighted to give the fans “something to cheer” after a 0-0 draw vs Costa Rica. If you didn’t live through that you don’t know how good we’ve had it under Southgate— Matthew Stanger (@MatthewStanger) July 14, 2024 2014 & 2016 were grim grim times though.
Pickford is the least of the problems in fairness. If he had a midfielder willing to take the ball under the press then he'd look a lot better.
We might also need to rethink this decision to ditch our pacy wingmen. Fast counterattacks have been the hallmark of much of Southgate's reign and we've looked a lot more uncertain without that outlet here. Let's remember, it is six years since Sterling and Rashford blew Spain away in their own back yard. They learned from that by introducing the likes of Yamal and Williams to their possession-based style. Maybe we need to learn from it too.
The thing is, Southgate hasn't really learned anything in his time. He still started this tournament with no clue on the balance needed in midfield, using warm up games trying to play Rice-Gallagher and then the Trent experiment. Wharton got 20 minutes and that's the best we looked all year. We don't need a major overhaul, we just need someone to come in with a clear identity and make a couple of changes - Wharton at 6 and Rice moved to 8 for a start. Having a balanced midfield that keeps possession is the major thing we need and we have the tools for that, for whatever reason Southgate doesn't trust that type of midfielder. So I don't think we have big problems. Kane also just won't work unless we play pacy, direct wingers which we have. The current issue is all down to management of the players and style - thankfully we have an excellent array of talent so that isn't the issue. What's annoying is that due to being relegated we don't have any meaningful games apart from WCQs so it's all well and good battering fodder 4/5-0 like Portugal did before the Euros, but we need to be tested against top teams and implement this game against them.
Yeah and I for one got it wrong with the squad selection before the tournament as I thought it was the right call to drop Rashford due to his form all season but then again I thought we would be playing a more possession based system rather than sitting back and looking for the counter attack without pace on the wings. We really did miss a Rashford for the style of play we had for this tournament.
I think the issue was Rashford just not being in the form or headspace to be selected. Southgate hinted that in March when he did select him.
It be interesting to see how Wharton gets on this season. Logically he should carry on from where he left off.
Watching Foden and Bellingham last night every time they did receive the ball it looked like they were trying to control as bouncing rubber ball… kept on mis controlling the ball . Players have to take responsibility also for their performances. Harry Kane had a very poor game too, didn’t win many headers or hold it up.
Is Hall the right future left back for that? Trent and James are. I suspect if Stones retires we will see Guehi and either Konsa or Colwill at centre back for the autumn.
And I don't think the issue is with Pickford, it's more the team approach. It's a risk averse tactic - better to lose possession in the opposition half than in your own final third. The lack of midfielders willing to take the ball under pressure is driving the decision for Pickford to play long. I can't imagine he's made this decision himself, as otherwise the management team would be constantly shouting at him to change.
Spain worthy winners and England still have plenty to learn. Time for Southgate to leave with huge gratitude for the cultural reset. But more can be got out of this talented group. #ENG #ESPENG #EURO2024 Report from Berlin @talkSPORT https://t.co/PCmr1IDeta— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) July 15, 2024 Gareth Southgate reflects on Sunday's #EURO2024 final...— England (@England) July 15, 2024 Euro 2024 final viewing figures.BBC peak: 17.8mITV peak: 6m That's 23.8m combined. Highest combined audience of year but only slightly above semi-final.(Doesn't count people in pubs and broadcasters will put out some other not-really-comparable streaming figures later.)— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) July 15, 2024
After 2008 Germany rebuilt & kept some of the Bayern players; Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Klose and built around it with a bunch of young prospects who had just won the U21 Euro's (ironically beating England in the final). Neuer, Boateng, Ozil, Khedira & Muller wee all added, but that coincided with a longer term plan ( as you alluded to). This is in spite of losing again to Spain in 2010 and would of lost again to Spain in the final of Euro 2012 (if Italy hadn't done a job on them in the semi's). Southgate hasn't done what Germany did over that period under Joachim Lowe (2008-2016) Our underage teams don't play anything like Southgate ball. What's the point in having a vision of an identity at youth/underage level if we dont apply it to the senior mens team?
England did not miss Rashford at all. For some reason everyone forgets that there was a better left winger in Gordon but he got only 4 minutes.