Southgate, from criticism to recording

Gareth Southgate He is the eternal mess. Another tournament, the rollercoaster that the English coach had to go through was decided at the last date, in this case after going down in history for a victory that would come to naught if England did not emerge as champions of European Cup.

No one, in all of history, has taken the team he led to two consecutive European finals.. What is even more curious about this is that the English press, almost unanimously, wanted out of the Three Lions Southgate. It seems that this will be the case, because the wear and tear of Gareth, who was part of the English team until 2013, from the base to the first team.

The final match Spain It is summed up in one phrase: win or quit. The coach made that clear at the beginning of the game. European Cup, before he ate the acid criticism that always surrounds the England team. He never escaped. Sometimes rightly and sometimes, a few, treated unfairly. The accusations started after falling in the final of Euro 2020 in sanctions against Italywith a decision to enter Then and Rashfordtwo kids for the penalty shootout, and the trend didn’t change despite the good results.

Cold thinking about a team that in the last two European Championships reached the final, quarterfinals and semifinals in the World Cup certainly seems far from considering the work of Southgate as failure. But the problem for many is not what happened, but what might have happened. Gareth is a conservative coach who certainly has the best generation of attacking players in Britain on his hands, and he is unforgiving in his way of understanding football.

In Qatar this is the first concrete example of doubts about Southgate and his ideas. Some of his people were already there. He was almost unknown as a coach when, mostly on the rebound and after leaving Sam Allardyce, after winning the Toulon Hopes Tournament in 2016 with the U-21s, took over on a temporary basis. It’s unbelievable. His most notable experience was with Middlesbrough and it did not end well and England went through a difficult time, but qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia confirmed him in the position.

Jack Grealish This is his first big but. Or rather not including him in the starting eleven at that time, moving Henderson or Rice from the trivote concentrated in the middle of the field. fell England in the quarterfinals and the bitterness remained hidden. So how much can the barrage even before this Euro Cup forced Southgate to confirm that if he does not come out with the trophy under his arm, he will resign from the bench. For many this will be impossible. The ‘Pross’ game has become bad, stale, and mainly due to an initial system that few can understand, wasting the best Foden on the left wing.

He received little credit for innovating his ideas. In the quarterfinals he corrected the scheme and England He improved, even if he didn’t know how to win calmly. But a step forward, with more dominance, more fluidity and more offensive football, is what his country asked of him. Better late than never. Spain is a fierce rival and can do nothing but try to get into the match. It is kill or be killed for Southgate. The record is fine, but history remembers only the winner.