- Jul 3, 2006
- 15,216
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Then how about giving him credit for last night and wait until Sunday evening before making another judgement? This is what I am on about. People wanted the likes of Foden starting last night and he did that. But you're still not happy because of a decision he is yet to make or you're yet to see?
Baffles me, it really does. He isn't the most gifted manager or coach, but there's this agenda against him I just don't get. He has given us the best tournament results consistently in decades. The football can actually be exciting and if you watched Iran or Wales games you should be able to acknowledge it.
Southgate crucially got this group to be united. It was always divided before he came along. He has done more for us than people want to give him credit for.
The changes against Wales weren’t due to giving other players a chance, he was shuffling his squad for fitness purposes. Barring a Welsh miracle England had already qualified for the next round.
Southgate has his favourites but given the quality of the squad he consistently either fails to pick his strongest XI or fails to react when things aren’t going our way.
Given the level of quality in terms of players that we’ve had over the last 4-5 years England should be reaching the latter stages of competitions if not going all the way and winning tournaments regardless of who the manager is.
The team last night was balanced, it had leadership, creativity and pace. Whereas he’s ‘first choice XI’ were poor in the lead up to the World Cup and offered absolutely nothing against the USA.
If Southgate sticks with the Welsh line up then yes I would support his selection but if he reverts back to his first choice XI (as he’s done previously) then it will be to the detriment of the team.