Gareth Southgate

[EasyforDennis]

Controversial but Is he as good a manager as the media would have us believe?
Personally I think he is too negative and sets his team's up not to lose rather than to win.
The only saves the Italian keeper had to make were the penalties.
Discuss.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

A semi final place in a world cup, nations league final and European final.  I think that says it all.  I'd also say other managers have had better players and not done as well as he has.  Most of us have a pride watching the team aswell.  He is a good international manager.

[mushRTID]

I rate the job he’s done, but I think he lost the plot extra time onwards yesterday.

[NickDRFC]

For a manager with such clear and detailed plans before the game, he’s very slow to react to what’s unfolding in front of him. He’s also inherently cautious so it’s never going to be thrilling to watch. But you can’t argue with his record - he’s managed at 2 tournaments with a semi final and final achieved, as well as the Nations League final. He’s got the players playing as a team rather than a collection of individuals. He’s earned the chance to learn from the mistakes of this tournament and make us stronger still.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Compare the England team before he was manager to now. So much better now and it’s not really about the quality of players we normally have a decent team. In past years it’s been a shambles

What I’d say is he needs to learn to be proactive. Great tactics to start which got us to half time 1-0 (disappointed we didn’t push harder for a 2nd in that half). But towards the end of the 1st half and after 5min of the second you could see they were just walking up to the edge of our box at will. Southgate waited for them to equalise rather than act to change the game. Very poor from a manager at this level.

[Chris Black come back]

This is not unique to England, but we have reached a total of five semi finals and two finals in major tournaments in our history. Three of these have been home tournaments (1966, 1996, 2021) and two in Europe (1990 and 2018). Winning a trophy outside of our home nation or home continent will be very tough.

[DRNaith]

I think he acted too late in last night's game, but most other managers would not have even got us to that game.

[Chris Black come back]

Cannot complain about the job Southgate has done. Why Mount was kept on for so long last night is a mystery. Pulling Sterling on to the left and someone new on to right, whether Saka or Sancho, could have been done 15 mins earlier. 70 mins was too late.

Generally though a job well done.

[Filo]

I think he acted too late in last night's game, but most other managers would not have even got us to that game.

He didn’t react, we were under the cosh for long periods in the second half, we needed to be 10 yards further up the pitch and we needed an outlet we did none of the two and it was only matter of time before they scored, crap game management from the manager

[ravenrover]

For me it was crying out for Grealish to come on for Mount after the 1st 20mins

[DonnyBazR0ver]

It's a collective responsibility and the players knew we backed off for too long, so we have to learn to stop being over cautious and continue to take risks.

Italy and other top teams, will do anything to stop momentum. Fouls, long false injury breaks etc. to make sure they clear their heads and all sing from the same hymn sheet to get the initiative back.

Is it better to stick with Southgate who has progressed us as a team and can continue learning? Or throw it all away and start again?

We've broken through some of the baggage we've carried for 55 years and just now need to take that final step that will turn us into winners.

[sha66y]

That group of players could have managed a win without the managers reins restricting their natural abilities….
He holds his hands up and says he’s to blame?…whoopee-dooooo!
Let’s just lose every competitive game at every sport and the orchestrator of that defeat can just say “ I hold my hands up, I’m to blame”
This guy should be publicly hoss-whipped along with all those who say “ well! Wr did get to a final”

It’s a good job Churchill didn’t cave in and come second

Drama over, bring on the Rovers rebuild…

[Chris Black come back]

Final thought. The officials were excellent. They didn’t fall for Italian antics or even some of the English diving. Question mark over his call on the assault on Grealish from Jorginho. Otherwise they let game flow and added to game rather than subtracted. Well done millionaire Dutch bloke and his two mates.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Needed VAR to give him a heads up on the Jorginho challenge. Had to be a red not that it would have changed the outcome

Worry is we’ve lost in the same way we did to Croatia Gareth hasn’t learnt from that so he needs to learn from this!

[GazLaz]

Not controversial at all. He’s done some good things off the pitch, pretty ordinary when it comes to match day though. I really dislike how he manages the team on match day.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Bloody hell, what would you be saying if we'd lost to Iceland?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Would tend to agree. For all the Italians history, mentality, form etc., they only beat us with the last kick of the penalty shoot out.

The last step is the hardest but taking everything into account, keep going, keep learning.

[River Don]

Generally he's done a great job, helping redefine what the England team is in the publics mind. After the managerial merrigoround that went before he's offered some stability. In terms of what we expect from the England team, no one can say he hasn't done well.

Can he learn from this and take it a step further?

I'm not sure but if he wants another shot at it, I think he's earned the right to have another go.

[Herbert Anchovy]

Gareth Southgate has literally done better than every other England manager since Alf Ramsey!

[Filo]

Gareth Southgate has literally done better than every other England manager since Alf Ramsey!

And won as many Trophy’s

[dickos1]

Needed VAR to give him a heads up on the Jorginho challenge. Had to be a red not that it would have changed the outcome

Worry is we’ve lost in the same way we did to Croatia Gareth hasn’t learnt from that so he needs to learn from this!

We lost on pens though,
I would say the Denmark game was mrs like the Croatia game and we came out on top.

[Herbert Anchovy]

Gareth Southgate has literally done better than every other England manager since Alf Ramsey!

And won as many Trophy’s

But got closer than all the other Managers

[Campsall rover]

Controversial but Is he as good a manager as the media would have us believe?
Personally I think he is too negative and sets his team's up not to lose rather than to win.
The only saves the Italian keeper had to make were the penalties.
Discuss.

Well he is the 1st manager who has got us to a final since Sir Alf Ramsey.

[DonnyNoel]

I like how he hasn't fallen in to the trap of previous managers of "these are my best 11 players, I must get them on the pitch somehow" although then that leads to continuos clamour for a team containing Kane, Sterling, Foden , Sancho and Grealish.

I think overall there's an element of moving the ball too slowly but part of me thinks thats still a personnel issue among our team. We don't have (and have rarely had) a midfielder that keeps it ticking over like a Pirlo or Iniesta or Modric. I know those are once in a generation players usually but I still think it's one bit of our puzzle that's missing.

[Campsall rover]

I like how he hasn't fallen in to the trap of previous managers of "these are my best 11 players, I must get them on the pitch somehow" although then that leads to continuos clamour for a team containing Kane, Sterling, Foden , Sancho and Grealish.

I think overall there's an element of moving the ball too slowly but part of me thinks thats still a personnel issue among our team. We don't have (and have rarely had) a midfielder that keeps it ticking over like a Pirlo or Iniesta or Modric. I know those are once in a generation players usually but I still think it's one bit of our puzzle that's missing.

This team with Steven Gerrard in his prime (playing in his proper position) would be some team.

[Filo]

I like how he hasn't fallen in to the trap of previous managers of "these are my best 11 players, I must get them on the pitch somehow" although then that leads to continuos clamour for a team containing Kane, Sterling, Foden , Sancho and Grealish.

I think overall there's an element of moving the ball too slowly but part of me thinks thats still a personnel issue among our team. We don't have (and have rarely had) a midfielder that keeps it ticking over like a Pirlo or Iniesta or Modric. I know those are once in a generation players usually but I still think it's one bit of our puzzle that's missing.

This team with Steven Gerrard in his prime (playing in his proper position) would be some team.

We need better than Rice and Phillips in there, although Rice had a decent game last night

[roversdude]

Southgate has done a great job for the England team overall. Last night was crying out for a change though, the Italians were there for the taking in the first half hour but we ended up with no outlet inviting pressure.
Great run in the tournament, great national pride but last night the best team won simple as.

[RoversAlias]

Southgate has done a brilliant job. He got a few things wrong last night, but ultimately we were probably the width of a post away from winning that penalty shoot-out. It was that tight.

7 games in this tournament, we won 5 and drew the other two. We never lost, just didn't bring the trophy home.

Best England team and manager of my lifetime, no question.

[PDX_Rover]

Southgate is still a relatively inexperienced manager. He said himself after the semi, 200 games or something.

England needed wholesale change from top to bottom and that’s been what has happened over the past decade.

Yes, he is overly cautious. We should have gone for a second goal and played higher up the pitch but we are light years ahead in other areas of the Englande of olde.

I feel there’s much more to come.

Love it.

[pib]

He's clearly doing something right, but with the attacking players England have got, we should really be better at killing teams off and causing them more problems than we do.

He seems content to score early and then sit off and defend for the rest of the game, which I don't think suits us and is harder to get away with against the better teams. The way England have flown out of the blocks in most of the games this Euros should've set the tone, but we've petered out in pretty much every game after starting well and (usually) scoring early-ish.

I know it's difficult to sustain that against a team as good as Italy, but you have to at least offer something on the counter to stop the cycle of sitting deeper and deeper and just defending the 18 yard box.