Southgate - time to admit this place was wrong?

[chunkyshanhawk53]

widely assumed to be a yes man who wouldn’t take tough decisions

- dropped Rooney, now retired
- dropped Hart (finally)
- dropped Wilshere
- dropped Cahill temporarily, instead looking at players from Leicester, Swansea and Burnley
- went to 3 at the back, and actually bothered to look at other options (like Walker in a 3)
- dropped Alli from the side when he was playing like a twat
- qualified easily, albeit from a piss poor group, with 7 wins and 2 draws from 9

Obviously we’re not gonna win the World Cup, we don’t have the players. But he’s done a much better job than most expected?

 

[Peter123]

Average I'd say. He persevered with Hart far too long. He's not done much wrong but I hardly think he's done anything to inspire either.
The group was awful. We were fairly poor throughout.

 

[mick8970]

We should be getting to at least the quarters of the World Cup, he will be judged on that.

 

[equuleus]

yes

 

[Plank]

tomkins shud be in

 

[tooliohelmet]

Aye as if.....how long have you been a member, and you're coming out with ridiculousness like this!!

 

[FootballFan]

Too early to say.

 

[Caer_Urfa]

that England squad is the worst squad to be taken to a tournament in 40 year. Pathetically crap midfield. Time to introduce a rule where clubs need to field atleast 4 English players every game.

 

[Mr David]

9 defenders is pathetic

 

[deleted user 785]

He's done well.

People will find anything to whinge at. Already a couple of examples on this thread

 

[Bop]

yes

Even though he didn’t select your bae Jonjo?

 

[PTR]

Never judge an England team for the qualifiers. Done that too many times in the past - they count for nowt.

 

[Morny]

People have spent 18 months saying he is a yes man, and that he only picks certain players because of the FA demanding it (fuck knows why they'd do that).

The fact that he has completely proven this wrong means them people have to move on to slating him for other things. For example 'too many defenders'. He has picked 9, which when you consider we (effevtively) play with 5 defenders, is perfectly reasonable. And "He took too long to drop Hart", even though he kept him in for qualifiers and monitored to see if a downturn in form was temporary or permanent.

 

[HABA87]

If my abacus is working, we've only been beaten 6 times in the last 80 WC qualifying matches.

 

[Confucius]

Cant speak about the board, but I certainly was

 

[Guinness Guzzler]

9 defenders is pathetic

I don't think it is, not if you're going to play 5 defenders. I'd roughly expect 2 players for each position on the pitch, with the extra place being for a third choice keeper. 5 players to cover 3 centre back spaces would seem good enough so I'm not surprised at 9 overall

 

[Plank]

If my abacus is working, we've only been beaten 6 times in the last 80 WC qualifying matches.

50 of them against san marino

 

[HABA87]

9 defenders is pathetic

Some very valid attacking options in there m8.

 

[lurker]

Dropped lallana too

 

[Mr David]

I don't think it is, not if you're going to play 5 defenders. I'd roughly expect 2 players for each position on the pitch, with the extra place being for a third choice keeper. 5 players to cover 3 centre back spaces would seem good enough so I'm not surprised at 9 overall

Far too defensive considering we have a pretty average and one dimensional Central Midfield.