Euro 2020

[BanjoPie]

Moving forward its time to change the Captain, Kane is not an effective leader.My choice would be Maguire. Also not sure if Southgate is the right man to take us to the world cup,

[durhampie]

We need to stop these idiots shuffling up to take penalties....

[jackal2]

Moving forward its time to change the Captain, Kane is not an effective leader. My choice would be Maguire. Also not sure if Southgate is the right man to take us to the world cup,

I agree on both counts.

It's extremely difficult for a centre-forward to lead a team whoever it is, but Maguire is a natural skipper and plays in a good position on the field to have that leading and organising role. Kane looked a bit inhibited at times during this tournament, and whether the pressure of being captain had anything to do with it I don't know, but Maguire is a better candidate and it would free Kane up to concentrate simply on leading the forward the line.

Likewise, although it's a risky time to say this, I'm not entirely taken in by the adulation for Southgate as a manager. That's not to say I don't give him credit for transforming England into a side that treasures possession much more than the teams of yesteryear, and for being willing to pick young players ahead of the grizzled veterans that used to get favoured in the past because of their over-rated "experience". He has been correct and courageous on both counts and deserves praise for it.

However, I think Southgate has been very fortunate to have at his disposal the best group of English players in many years if not ever, and I think he has generally been fortunate with the way the fixtures have fallen at the World Cup and the European Championship, ending up on the 'weaker' side of the draw in both. Aside from Germany (who look a shadow of their former selves anyway) we've beaten teams we should expect to beat with the players at our disposal, but come unstuck in the "50/50" games against Belgium and Italy. Plus, we shouldn't have lost to Croatia in the World Cup semi-final, where Southgate's negative tactics let us down.

Gareth Southgate will take England to the World Cup, of that there is no doubt, because his record on paper looks impressive and he ticks the Football Association boxes as a non-threatening (to them), media-savvy, corporate friendly, uncontroversial character who mouths all the right pleasantries. The suits at the FA can all sit back, quaff champagne for another 18 months (at least) and do what they always do - avoid decisions.

My feeling is that Southgate isn't much different from the instinctively defensive coach who produced possibly the most boring side in Premier League history at Middlesbrough. As England boss he's generally played it safe with an exceptional group of players and that has been enough to take us almost all the way, but just like Ian Burchnall has appeared to be a positive upgrade on the negative tactics of Neal Ardley at Notts, I think there is still another 30-40% of potential to be realised from this England team. They are potentially that good. In fact, I believe that if Roberto Mancini had been managing England tonight and Southgate managing Italy, we would have won the game inside 90 minutes.

I'm sure many others will disagree and might even be outraged that anyone could question the England manager at this time, but this is an opinions board after all, and you have to say what you see.

[queenslandpie]

Kane was ineffective again, just like the group games. Mount did nothing and nor did Saka or Henderson when they came on. We needed Grealish and Sancho much earlier.

Pros: the emergence of Kalvin Phillips as one of the finest holding midfielders in the world, Luke Shaw turning world class and the Yorkshire wall.

I knew Italy would win tonight after the anthems.

He was not in the first half and of the move good moves we made he started all of them including the great pass which lead to the cross for Shaws goal. However he drifted out of the game massively in the second half.

[ForeignLegion]

Spent more time falling over as did Stirling.

[KCNotts]

He was not in the first half and of the move good moves we made he started all of them including the great pass which lead to the cross for Shaws goal. However he drifted out of the game massively in the second half.

To my knowledge he didn't have one shot on goal? Just like Wootton under Ardley.

[Glad2BeAPie]

And people saying give Southgate a Knighthood

[LaxtonLad]

After scoring first and not getting a second immediately we opted for caution and started to fall deep. The Italians love this sort of challenge and it fitted their ball-playing skills perfectly.

Southgate left his substitutes on the bench for too long giving the Italians time to develop control with theirs and we fell back even deeper, meaning we had to charge even further toward the enemy goal. With no more ideas than retreat there was only one outcome and it wasn't scoring another goal. Time for Grealish?

The penalty takers never looked confident and looked as if they were pushed rather than volunteered into taking the kicks.

To sum it up, Southgate wasn't up to the job.

[Glad2BeAPie]

After scoring first and not getting a second immediately we opted for caution and started to fall deep. The Italians love this sort of challenge and it fitted their ball-playing skills perfectly.

Southgate left his substitutes on the bench for too long giving the Italians time to develop control with theirs and we fell back even deeper, meaning we had to charge even further toward the enemy goal. With no more ideas than retreat there was only one outcome and it wasn't scoring another goal. Time for Grealish?

The penalty takers never looked confident and looked as if they were pushed rather than volunteered into taking the kicks.

To sum it up, Southgate wasn't up to the job.

And he won't ever be

[The_Pie_Man]

The response has been suitably predictable- fawning over a bunch of plucky losers. The ideal scenario for this country, which thrives on the ‘at least you tried’ mantra.