ToneLoc wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:39 am
Southgate you cunt.
Still seething over that shit from yesterday.
After Russia 2018 I thought we’d found someone who played without fear and picked players on form and fitness only.
But no, the weight of expectation and his developing relationship with certain players has turned him into another Sven. He now has his little clique of “favourites”…. the death knell for almost every England manager.
And his “not lose” mindset seems to have gotten into the players heads. It reminds me of the early Moyes days.
Maybe, if we go on to have a good tournament we’ll look at last night as just a minor blip and a point gained.
But NOT hammering those fuckers and being happy for the final whistle is grating me at the moment
The clique of 'favourites' is so apt. As soon as the squad was announced you knew Southgate's likely preferred starting front three would be Rashford,Kane,Sterling. Problem there, they were all off form. Sterling all season,Rashford six months and Kane the last two weeks.
Compounding that problem he then took too many fullbacks,Ben White ? and two injured players, later discarding Ward-Prowse and Lingard.
The media sat back, raised the odd question and then all agreed he knows what he's doing. I thought, Harry Kane is a golden boot winner,he will get his form back and we do have Grealish,Bellingham,Sancho,Foden and Mount so we should be fine.
Tournament starts and we have scored one goal, that a stab in the dark from a scuffed shot by a falling over Raheem Sterling and hardly a glimpse from Bellingam,Sancho or Grealish. And now we discover that Harry Kane is almost even more off form than his off form period at the end of the season. Cripes !
Now imagine if Gareth Southgate had been replaced in April by someone like Frank Lampard, then imagine Englands front three for the Czech game
as Grealish,Ings,Sancho with Mount and Bellinham prompting and Dec sitting. Or perhaps Ward-Prowse and Lingard.
But definitely not Henderson,Phillips,Rashford or Sterling.
So what does Southgate do now ? Well you might as well start Maguire next to Stones against the Czech's because your going to start him in the round of 16 and at least it gets him match fit'ish. There was/is never ever any need or good purpose to play Rice and Phillips, so ditch Phillips and free up a slot for someone creative. Probably time to restore Chilwell to LB. We don't need to see the other two again.
Which leaves the elephant in the room,the golden boot himself. Not GS's fault he is hopelessly out of sorts but leaving Ings behind is. Best he can do is play Grealish and Sancho either side and hope the £100M+ man can reflate himself price wise.
Failing that, we can all pin our hopes on Calvin-Lewin who I have only observed on MOTD highlights. Is that enough ? We might be about to find out...