I don’t think you would find another Premier League manager who would have managed England the way Gareth Southgate did last week against Slovakia.
He waited until he was minutes away from losing the game and losing his job, before he made key attacking changes in Eberechi Eze and Ivan Toney, who Gareth admitted afterwards was ‘disgusted’.
What was Gareth seeing? ‘My team are playing well, creating chances and look like scoring goals.’ Really?
His first change was Cole Palmer on 66 minutes, the second Eze, on 84 minutes then, of course, Toney on 94 minutes. Imagine the chat: ‘Now Ivan, go on and get me two goals in two minutes and keep me in a job…’ You can fully understand Toney having the hump in that situation.
What is in Gareth’s head?
Gareth Southgate waited until he was minutes away from losing his job and England being knocked out to make changes against Slovakia
He introduced Ivan Toney (pictured) – who he said was ‘disgusted’ with just minutes left to play
With others letting you know it is not right, you have to question what his eyes were telling him
When you are in a stadium, the crowd is letting you know it’s not right, your assistants are letting you know it’s not right – or should be – even your own eyes must tell you, it’s not right. What are his eyes telling him? They must have been blurred.
What other scenario needed painting to instigate earlier changes? You are in a knockout game, not playing well with a minute to go and your job is on the line.
I’m not understanding his actions.
Every day since the first game of England’s tournament, Gareth must have asked himself what am I doing differently?
How can this team, with fundamentally the same players, perform so well in previous tournaments yet produce this?
As a manager, I’m trying to see this objectively but it has been a very hard watch.
Any team can have a bad day. The madness of football means that, in a flick of a switch, a team so positive, so good can become so ordinary. But for four games we have seen no improvement and I’m as mystified as any rabid England supporter by the quality of performance I am witnessing.
You look for the possible reasons: Other nations have players who have also had long, hard seasons, so ‘No’ it’s not that.
Any team can have a bad day, but England have been poor throughout the tournament
It shouldn’t be that they are getting wrong information from the manager, because top players know how to resolve that
It was like the season after Leicester won the Premier League – it comes back to the players
Have they overtrained? I doubt it. That happened decades ago. Not now with the input of sports science, so that’s a ‘No’.
Are they getting the wrong information from the manager? Even if they were, top players know how to resolve that in a game. They don’t need to follow a masterplan to the letter. So park that thought, it shouldn’t be that either.
I can only liken it to when Leicester City won the Premier League yet the next season, by February, they were one point off the relegation places. Claudio Ranieri must have been asking himself: ‘Why are the same things not working?’
What it comes back to is, if it’s not you, it is the players.
Mentally, they are not coping with tournament football.
For a so-called progressive football team, against Slovakia, England scored two goals off set plays to get out of jail; one a scruffy affair and one a piece of real athleticism from Jude Bellingham. Neither were from clever passages of play, and the most concerning aspect was how, straight after wrestling back the advantage, they sat deep and went back into their shell. That’s a worry.
These players are so much better week in, week out in the Premier League, that’s why they are here. But they are a shadow of who we know.
We are hearing from the camp that Gareth may think they need a different voice to respond to. After 100 games in close to nine years? What a load of rubbish. And these are meant to be big players.
England need to galvanise themselves to be more aggressive and more creative against Switzerland on Saturday
Maybe Gareth is being overly loyal, he has seemed reluctant to make changes, but, as we said last week, loyalty has to go out the window. There’s no room for it now in one-off games. This 90 minutes is all or nothing.
Leaving England for Germany three weeks ago, if the players had been told they would get through a dream group, face Slovakia, then Switzerland for a place in the semi-final, they would have said ‘It doesn’t get any better.’ But the way they are shaping, they could easily lose to Switzerland.
They have got to galvanise themselves to be more aggressive and more creative. They need a spark. Maybe that comes from the change in system to three at the back or maybe he will give form players such as Cole Palmer or Anthony Gordon a greater role. It needs major change to find some better way because so far it has not been good and if, they don’t sort it, the only thing coming home will be England.
Jude is talking too much and it’s not a good look
Jude Bellingham needs to pull back from talking so much otherwise the media will eat him up.
The best example of managing young talent I can think of was Sir Alex Ferguson with Ryan Giggs. In the early days of his Manchester United career, with all the hype that surrounded him, he was barely allowed to say a word. It was all about concentrating on becoming a top player first.
Jude is coming across as someone who is talking too much.
Everyone will want a piece of him. He’s a young man who plays for Real Madrid and England, every media outlet wants his comment every single minute on everything. After every game, for every press conference, it will be: ‘Get Jude’. But less is more and he has got to pull back. He has to keep his own counsel and not expose himself to media requests at every opportunity.
Jude Bellingham has been talking to the media too much – they will eat him up if he continues
More experiened players should be stepping forward to say they will take on media duties
For a young person he is doing too much and it is not a good look.
As a player at Liverpool, you were kept in check more via banter, the message was ‘don’t embarrass yourself’. It was self-regulating from other players.
There’s supposed to be a leadership group with England, those more experienced players should be stepping forward, saying they will do it instead of Jude.
He’s attracting attention that will not be helpful. The focus we are seeing on his ill-advised celebration; he’s taking pressure off under-performing members in that group as the attention turns to him and someone needs to step forward.
Generally, England don’t seem to be handling the criticism. It’s as if they are being treated badly. They should try going to a Latin country. Good luck if you play for them, that’s really fierce when it’s not going well.
No, criticism has never been any different with England. Even the great communicators Sir Bobby Robson and Terry Venables admitted it was difficult at times. So this is nothing new.
I know myself how difficult it can be as a player. It has never been easier to find out what is being said about you. With hours to kill, they go on their phones, see social media or comment pieces. But that’s what comes when England don’t produce good performances.
We see they are adopting a siege mentality now. Fergie was big on that over the years with United and we had it at Glasgow Rangers, ‘No-one likes us and we don’t care’ is the shout. Whatever approach they use, they need to find a glimmer of inspiration from somewhere. Then that will give us all something better to talk about.
The stand-out players for me at Euro 2024 have been Spain wide players Lamine Yamal (left) and Nico Williams (right)
Spanish duo have stolen the show
Regardless of what happens in Friday night’s quarter final between Spain and Germany, the stand-out players of Euro 2024 for me have been the Spanish wide players Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal.
There’s a lot being said about Yamal because he’s doing so well for a 16-year-old but Williams I like a lot. A boy from Pamplona whose parents left Ghana and crossed the Sahara desert barefoot for a better life in Spain.
If he was ever under the radar before at Athletic Bilbao, he will definitely not be after this. He is front and centre of all the big clubs and it’s no surprise Barcelona are trying to find a way to buy him if his clause is £47million.