Can England win Euros under Southgate

[papamouse]

You guys put your wonderful team and manager under too much pressure. Just enjoy the games, win, loose or draw.

One minute it's all songs and fun - next minute your manager has a turnip head...

C'mon Scotland!

[Nomis]

If Harry maguire starts you may as well turn the telly off then !

The midfield talent we have is amazing Foden, Bellingham, Saka and Rice add Eze, Cole
palmer, Anthony Gordon and Gallagher I do t think there is a better team. Depends where Kane performs but Watkins is a great option.

I think Pickford is underrated I think he is a fantastic keeper yes he has a howler in him every now and again but show me a keep that doesn’t overall he will stop more goals that others could or than he will give away and would you want more in a. Penalty shootout ?

I don’t think Ben Chilwell is bad at LWB but can’t see Southgate playing 3 5 2 as he has not balls.

Hopefully Dunk will never put and England shirt on again

[cornishfrogboy]

We have the best squad, arguably since Mexico 70. We have an abundance of attacking brilliance in Kane, Foden, Saka, Bellingham. We have a world class defensive midfielder in Rice to protect the back four. We have Kyle Walker. We should be on the front foot and playing high up the pitch.

Then we have Southgate, the most risk averse, turgid, naive and defensive minded manager in many years, who will pick his favourites and regardless of whether they are even regulars in their club side. That is why we will fall short.

We have done well in recent competitions, but when you actually look at the statistics, we have beaten sides ranked lower than us whilst invariably losing to those who are either in our ball park or rated higher.

Southgate showed his true mettle at Middlesbrough and with him at the helm, we will bore our way to maybe the quarters or semis.. as long as we don’t meet a side higher or equally rated with us.. We need a new Manager and I wonder if Herr Klopp may become available.

[shirley]

Just saw his choice of players on BBc News, what are your thoughts?

Sad day when a scottish person knows more about the English players that her home team LOL , put this down to the fact we are never in tournaments !

[elmspenguin]

Fair play to Southgate he has mostly gone with form players for a change, Grealish is lucky to be in in my opinion.

As defensive as Southgate is the defence is the main worry for me, left back could be an issue unless Shaw gets fit I thought maybe Mitchell might have got in the initial squad in case Shaw isn't fit as the other options for that position are not really left backs just players who can play there.

[Loftus]

Southgate getting a bit adventurous and some of the players that might attract moans, like Dunk, are likely to be cut to get it down to 26.

[JohnD]

They'd need the kind of lucky draw England got in the Rugby World Cup. As that's not going to happen, they'll leave after the quarters.

[Brewers]

Originally Posted by Loftus

Could they win? Yes. Will they win? Despite the bookies odds they're not the favourites.

I'm an England fan and go to the games. I think Southgate has done a great job in turning around the team and the attitudes to the team but he needs to, and probably will, step down after the Euros.

He has a great array of attacking talent but is hampered by a lack of defensive talent, which is only made worse by the the fact we have so many injuries in this area. This seems to be why he falls back on his double pivot ahead of them and why players like Henderson keep getting games.

Pickford is still probably or best keeper but he doesn't really rank in a list of goalkeeping greats. If we go with a back 4 Walker is a shoo-in at right back, Stones will get one of the center back spots despite barely playing for City recently but who's alongside him? Maguire had been injured and been pretty consistent for England despite his ups and downs for United. Guehi? Been injured for a long time and only just coming back. Gomez? A bit of a jack of all trades defensively and will probably make the squad because of it. Tomori? Had a poor season in Italy. I'd probably go for Branthwaite currently.

But left back is a disaster with all the main contenders injured or coming back from injury, and one of those - Trippier - is really a right back.

It's the back that's likely to cost us. Ahead of them in Bellingham, Kane, Foden and Saka we have world class players and Rice is a quality defensive midfielder.

I'll still be there with my fingers crossed.

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I agree with virtually all of that, I just think Tomori must have run over Southgate's cat, he's not had the best season by all accounts but how he gets overlooked time after time is embarrassing. To think that Quansah has a place in the squad in front of him makes me wonder if he's done something wrong behind the scenes?

[Brewers]

Fair play to Southgate, I was amazed (in a very pleasantly surprised way) that we don't have the defensive midfield qualities of Phillips & Henderson to draw on.

The big issue will be LB if Shaw can't get fit. Trippier should be ok there but then we have to rely on Gomez, who is only in the squad cos he can play several positions (though none particularly well) & he's a Liverpool player.

Southgate has united the team & cut out club factions but is far too negative for my liking. We have an abundance of attacking talent, a world class defensive CM in Rice, a pretty solid back 5 but we play against the other top teams like we are lucky to be on the same pitch as them.

I actually think that we will win this tournament if Southgate lets other teams worry about us. Foden, Saka, Grealish, Eze, Palmer &, the most complete footballer on the planet, Bellingham, will terrify even the best teams.

Now Southgate has had the balls to leave out the likes of Phillips & Henderson, I hope this is a sign he has realised he needs to let this team off the leash, as opposed to having the easy option of telling the young lads in his squad that they haven't made the final 26.

[Neil & Stella]

My only issue really is our reliance on Kane and everything geared up to providing him with chances. Against lesser opponents those tactics have been shown to be damn near infallible, but it seems as though the better teams know how to nullify those tactics. The same thing happened at Spurs and again this season at Bayern. Many of the goals he scored were against teams that Bayern always or at least usually beat, but the better teams and even some of the lower mid table teams worked them out and exploited the weaknesses that relying on Kane brings.

I'm not saying that Southgate should drop him, because he is without doubt a world class striker, but the tactics need to be more flexible and if it isn't working for Kane he shouldn't be afraid to substitute him. Look back to South Africa when the ball was literally bouncing off Rooney, but he couldn't be subbed off no matter how little his impact was. No player is bigger than the team.

Actually I lied, there is another issue. Harry Maguire. Firstly his fitness is questionable, but more importantly his form has been at best sporadic for the last two seasons at least.