Did Southgate Get It Wrong

[Thirsty Relic 214]

Everything came down to fine margins in the end, and to me it was fascinating what happened right at the end of extra time.

 

 With a minute or so of extra time, Southgate knew that the 11 on the pitch did not include many penalty takers, so decided to bring on Sancho and Rashford.  Had they scored, we would be saying that was a masterstroke. 

 

Italy realised what he was planning to do, and started passing the ball around an keeping possession.  With the ball in play, our subs couldn't be brought on.  Had they retained possession and won in the shootout, their tactics of keeping possession would have been hailed as the masterstroke, and Southgate criticised for leaving the substitution until too late.

 

Then, one of the Italian players departed from the script, took the ball upfield and won a corner, thus letting the subs on.  If we'd won the shootout, that player (not sure who but he was playing the left side of their attack) would have been the target of their supporters anger. 

 

We then took off a defender and a defensive midfielder and replaced them with forwards, just as we were defending a corner.  If it goes wrong, its "Blame the Manager" time again.  We survived the rest of the match, taking it to penalties.

 

It's history now that the subs missed, and we lost.  Had they both scored, we'd still be cheering and Gareth heading for a knighthood.

 

It's a funny old game!

[ukdobby 224]

To bring the 2 on 1 minute from time to take pens is not good management,I don't think Sancho touched the ball,if Rashfords going to showboating in his run up he must score or take stick.

The tv just shows Saka missing,it wasn't just down to him we lost the shootout.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ukdobby said:

To bring the 2 on 1 minute from time to take pens is not good management,I don't think Sancho touched the ball,if Rashfords going to showboating in his run up he must score or take stick.

The tv just shows Saka missing,it wasn't just down to him we lost the shootout.

Agree, this has been raised by some pundits too.

 

Rashford and Sancho (sound like cops) barely got a run out. Then we're tasked to take crucial spot kicks- you could tell it was going to be uneasy. 

 

Also, Rashford's run up was hesitant, too long and he looked unsure- I made a cuppa and got back on the sofa before he struck the ball.. 😆

[Guest sibon]

14 hours ago, West 77 said:

To be fair FIFA lost all credibility when awarding the World Cup to Qatar.  

Blimey Westy, talk about being late to the party. How much credibility do you think that they had before that?

[HumbleNarrator 286]

I think Gareth Southgate bottled it in the final. I do still think he's the man for the job though, he's more in tune with the modern game of football, lets face it, we'd have got nowhere near the final under his predecessor, the dinosaur Sam Allardyce.

[hackey lad 3,976]

7 minutes ago, HumbleNarrator said:

I think Gareth Southgate bottled it in the final. I do still think he's the man for the job though, he's more in tune with the modern game of football, lets face it, we'd have got nowhere near the final under his predecessor, the dinosaur Sam Allardyce.

Allardyce had a 100 percent win record.

[HumbleNarrator 286]

50 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Allardyce had a 100 percent win record.

😆 I suppose he did, fair enough.

[ukdobby 224]

Southgate been given the freedom of the city in Middlesbrough,why?what would he get if he won something?

[Thirsty Relic 214]

37 minutes ago, ukdobby said:

Southgate been given the freedom of the city in Middlesbrough,why?what would he get if he won something?

Hammered by the media the next time he didn't win something - just as you would expect from our media.  He got us to the first final since 1966, and he's still getting grief because we didn't win the thing!

[ukdobby 224]

He may have had us in a final but does that make him worthy of a knighthood?He also got well paid for finishing 2nd in Europe.