Euro 2020 - England vs. Scotland

[drillerpie]

England to me look like a reflection of the personality of their manager, and very much like his Middlesbrough team used to be: bang average and rather uninspiring. Southgate produced one of the most tepid, boring Premier League teams I've ever had the misfortune to watch, and generally speaking, his England side are similar. He got away with it at 'Boro because their aim was only ever to survive, but this England squad are expected to be serious challengers. I thought we were lucky to get as far as we did in the last World Cup, and even then we contrived to lose to a Croatia team who were not that brilliant.

Southgate is absolutely right to coach the England players to treasure possession, because you can't win an international tournament with games every three/four days by playing the kick and rush style we used to do. The players simply burn out by the quarter finals. However, the passing/possession game needs to be much higher tempo, moving the ball quicker and asking the players to work harder to give each other options. Last night we were static and slow, which negated the superior ability our players had compared with Scotland's. We simply played in front of them, mostly going side-to-side.

The transformation we need to see is not dissimilar to the one that has happened since Burchnall replaced Ardley at Notts. Everything needs to be done at a quicker, sharper tempo and players need to be more willing to play forward passes, because if we put the likes of Foden, Mount and Grealish on the front foot, they can do damage. Has Southgate got the coaching ability to deliver that next level of development, like Mancini appears to have done with Italy? I'm far from convinced to be honest.

Agree with all of that. I'll wait until the end of the tournament to pass judgement on Southgate because things can change quickly in these competitions, but I'm largely Southgate-sceptic.

Another couple of similarities between Southgate and Ardley are that he gets cut a lot of slack for being a nice guy, and that it's often forgotten how he has been extremely lucky in the quality of players at his disposal.

[the_anticlough]

England to me look like a reflection of the personality of their manager, .

Don't you mean 'extension' of the personality of their manager?
(Sorry Jackal, see posts 47 to 50)