The tone of the criticism of the coach and England’s performances has gone too far.
Jump on the bandwagon of the detractors Gareth Southgate it is an almost impossible task. The last one to have succeeded, thanks to a champion’s play, was Gary Lineker: in the podcast The Rest is Football the coach described him as “tactically unsuitable”. Not only that: he did it by attaching an English word that begins with sh– and it ends with –it – four letters in all – to define England’s performance against Denmark.
Lineker has carved out a second part of his career in the television scene across the Channel. For several seasons he has been the face of Match of the Daya historic program on the second channel dedicated to Saturday Premier League matches. Since August 2023, he has also started self-producing his own podcast: Away from the tight confines of public television, Lineker is finally free to say what he wants. These days, good old Gary seems to be having a great time around Germany: always different guests, in shirt sleeves, discussing Euro 2024 and, of course, England without filters.
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Southgate, needless to say, is by far the biggest topic heat of each episode.
England-Slovenia 0-0one of the worst performances of Southgate’s entire management, provided Lineker with the best assist he ever received in his career – for someone who played 87 career games alongside Gazza and 51 with Chris Waddle, that’s saying something… – and further energy to express all his discomfort: “In our team we have the best player in La Liga, the top scorer in the Bundesliga and the best player in the Premier League. Everyone seems confused, disoriented. This is because our selector cannot give them confidence, it is simply unacceptable.”.
Thanks also to the interventions of Alan Shearer e Wayne Rooney, The Rest is Football is one of the most followed sports contents in England. A product that seems to have a very precise editorial line: to shoot at the CT of the Three Lions. And, in this battle, Lineker and his associates have long known that they are not alone.
Southgate replaced Allardyce as England manager in 2016: the noise of criticism against him had never gone so high as in his eighth summer as selector. The Athletic writes that “Never before in this European there seems to be no precise plan“, al Guardian the guests of Football Weekly they sigh in chorus that “Austria is a team with energy, balance and clear ideasImagine how wonderful it would be if we too had at least one of these characteristics.“.
Even Gary Nevillewho has previously been vocal in supporting his former international team-mate, recently criticised Southgate for the use of Declan Rice – spoiler: it is substantially identical to the past, but today is not the time to dissect the technical and tactical aspects of Euro 2024 -: to say that the whole of English football is, these days, lined up against the Watford-born coach, is a mere observation.
In the midst of a stormy sea, the English ship managed to dock at the nearest port safe and sound. Thanks to the 5 points won in three matches, England ranked in the first place in Group Cguaranteeing access to the round of 16 of Euro 2024. Kane and his teammates will challenge Slovakia to advance in a part of affordable scoreboard and try to reach the second consecutive final in the top continental competition. The Three Lions have not won a trophy in 55 years, they have never won a European Championship in their history.
Decades and decades studded with great disappointments and stinging defeats: Italia ’90a tournament that could be compared to Euro 2024, due to the poor level of performance offered by England; Russia 2018which faded away on Harry Kane’s shot in the final minutes of the semi-final against Croatia; Euro 2020with Wembley ready to welcome the game of football back home but this, once again, gets lost one step away from the door.
Despite an objectively poor past in success, a burden weighs on every English expedition departing towards a major tournament abnormal pressure load. In the last three competitions Southgate has managed to bring England back to the top of the world football geography by nations. A team that over the years has maintained asolid framebut capable of evolving and incorporating the enormous talent that the perfidious Albion has managed to produce in the last decade. A group born and raised together with its CT who, also due to bad luck and episodes, has not yet managed to achieve a final victory.
The main person responsible for the English non-victories? That clown of Southgate, obviously.
The expectations for Euro 2024 and the pressure, if possible, are thus even higher: the great season of the English stars around Europe – the best player in La Liga, the top scorer in the Bundes and so on – and the atavistic presumption of superiority of Anglo-Saxon football, it is easy to understand how this national team would be allowed to return to England only with the cup in hand.
We said we wouldn’t dwell on it field issuesbut we have to prove ourselves wrong. After the victory in the debut against Serbia, two extremely disappointing draws came with Denmark and Slovenia. Despite the better frontline of the tournament, England struggled enormously to create conditions to reach the conclusion. The ball moves slowly, often horizontally. There is little inclination to attack space. The players fail to take responsibility in possession. Let’s be honest: the spectacle offered by this team is anything but memorable.
England But suffers little – as he always has done under Southgate management – and does play under rhythm opponents too. He has won only one match, but has only conceded one goal. Foden and Kane appear to be under par, but the debutant’s responses Guehi and the entire defensive package are more than reassuring. Dove is this the truth? Or rather, to which Of the many truths that we are told, are we willing to believe?
In England, the time of analytical and rational discussions on football and the national team now seems a distant memory. In the wake of what the main experts are saying – whether they wear shirt sleeves or have recently stopped treading the playing fields – a quantity of garbage matched only by the immense and proverbial calm with which Southgate has always shown himself to absorb criticism and insults.
On social media, fans are hoping to exit Euro 2024 soon, if only for the prospect of freeing themselves from the burden sitting on the bench. Every single means and means of communication is being used against Southgate. A sad scenarioin a society that professes to be civilized but where the boundary between legitimate grievance and lack of respect for the person has been irremediably crossed.
If only a month ago the presence of Harry Maguire was the pretext to mock the CT, today Southgate is accused of not having the courage to take him to Germany despite a serious ankle problem. The presence in the squad of a battered Luke Shaw it was deemed a senseless gamble, when during the lead-up period many would have liked to see him at Euro 2024 even at half-time.
Unforgivable too the exclusions of Grealish and Branthwaite: the first has magically returned to public opinion’s good graces after years of insults, the second has been elected as the messiah of the rearguard despite the fact that until recently almost no one really knew his value.
After the challenge to Denmarka barrage of delirious comments has been unleashed on Southgate in response to the substitutions of Saka, Foden and Kane: How can you remove the best players with the result still up in the air?? At the final whistle in England-Slovenia, four days later, Rooney and Shearer were clamoring why Palmer and Gordon had not found more space. And that match, too, never moved from the draw result.
The climate surrounding England on the eve of the match against Slovakia is surreal, but Southgate will have to be able to turn all this into an opportunity. The group is firmly on his side: there are many who have accrued a debt with the CT. Any examples? Saka in Bellingham, in which the Watford native put his trust before many others. OR Trippierwho in the national team found the strength in the darkest moments to build a second part of his career that was even better than the first.
The serious stuff will start in the eighth finals, and the group must give a signal of compactness. Harry Kane and Marc Guehi, the last in chronological order to appear in the press room, have already expressed their position. The captain’s words are especially significant: “I can never speak highly enough of Gareth and what he has done for this team and for the nation. In terms of where we were and where we are now as a national team, he is completely different from when he arrived“.
Faced with all this, the non-Southgate’s reactions continue to non-make news. Shouldn’t we pay more attention to this? In the pre- and post-match press conferences, the English coach did not never lost the gentle and calm tone. He responded to the criticism, defended the group before his own actions, and invited the fans who had come to Germany or remained in England to remain close to the national team shirt.
In his gestures and expressions, Southgate always demonstrates extreme respect towards interlocutorseven in cases where the same is not sine qua non condition of whoever has the serve on the racket. He listens to them with attentive eyes, collects, elaborates the response and he replies with extreme politeness. Words that are never banal and always relevant to the question asked. A virtuous and rare example of how one should behave towards the press and, in general, towards the people who are doing their job. An example that many of us, influenced and permeated as we are by toxicity of Italian information culture, of football and of the intersection between these two worlds, they seem to have no desire to follow.
2024-06-30 07:00:00
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