I’m disappointed

[Guest ttfn]

12 hours ago, Ricey said:

All this talk of Shelvey, Carroll, reverting to 4-4-2 is totally missing the point. We aren't blessed with a crop of fantastic players, so Southgate decided to forge a togetherness ('No Dickheads' policy, that rules out Shelvey and Carroll) and a system that detracted as much as possible from our glaring lack of quality central midfielders. To do that he couldn't keep switching to other formations or styles at the first sign of trouble. He had to go all-in and believe in that system and those players. Doing so paid dividends and it got us through to the semi-final.

 

Yes, he should have reacted in the second half to Croatia's threat. Rashford was a mistake, as he spent most of the time walking when the Croatia backline had the ball, rather than helping Alli and Lingard, who somehow had to try and deal with the full backs forward runs AND trying to mark Modric and Rakitic. He should have taken Kane off, who may as well not been there from about 75 minutes onwards. He should have brought on someone like Delph to stop Vrsaljko getting forward or to just sit on Modric.

 

From 45 minutes onwards Southgate arguably lost of the game by not reacting or changing. But that is ok. He is an inexperienced manager, but one with an open mind, lack of arrogance and willingness to learn. He will improve from this experience. He clearly had faith that his first choice eleven would regroup and take back control. If we had kept the ball like we did the first half, maybe that would have happened. You have to admire that confidence in the players and the system. I think that mentality will prove to be important in future tournaments.

 

I'm sick of hearing people say we will never have a better chance to get to a final. Surely the whole point of being a football fan is to dream and always believe that the future will be bright? It's the hope that kills you, but also what keeps you coming back for more.

 

This sums up my thoughts - Southgate has done a fantastic job but Wednesday was the first proper test of him tactically and he failed it pretty comprehensively.

 

But we’ve had plenty of managers before who’ve been shrewd tacticians and have achieved far less given the resources at their disposal. There’s something about international management - particularly tournament management - which appears to require a very different set of skills to being a club manager and Southgate’s fostering of a sense of pride in the National team is far bigger than any one match.

 

Before the tournament he said “there is no plan B” when asked about his 3 at the back, and he was true to his word. It’s entirely possible (and in fact a lot of his press statements seem to back this up) that he sees this tournament, whatever the result, as just the beginning for this set of players and that perhaps fostering a proper tactical understanding within the framework he wants to play to is more important than the result in the here-and-now.

 

There are a lot of reasons to be positive. Under 17 and under 20 world champions. Our young players are, for the first time I can remember, being coveted by top clubs across Europe and, even more encouragingly, are actually moving there to get game time. Jadon Sancho has displaced both Schurrle (a World Cup winner) and Yarmolenko (just signed for West Ham for £17.5m) from the first XI at Dortmund. Ademola Lookman basically told Sam Allardyce to do one when he told him he’d be better off continuing his footballing education at Derby (top 6 in the championship) rather than RB Leipzig (top 6 in the Bundesliga). Liverpool have become so pissed off with Gladbach’s repeated approaches for Rhian Brewster that they’ve cancelled a friendly between the two sides. This can only be good for the technical and tactical development of our young players and represents a step change from the insular culture of previous generations.

 

There’s no guarantees that some (or indeed any) of these players will make it through to the national side in 4 years time. But 4 years ago I’d have struggled to name even one player in that 18-20 age bracket who was good enough to go and play regularly at a top European side.

 

Southgate is putting the right structure in place to allow these players to come in and succeed with the national team.