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Christian's avatar

Gareth is out here boiling bananas, and sautéing crisps because I’ve never seen cooking like this! Been following people like Josh, Mo, Andrew, Dave, etc. for quite some time because their approach is grounded in data and player tendency/ability/dynamic. So to see a “professional” get it so wrong is honestly fascinating.

You have 6 UCL winners on the squad and managed to play almost every one of them out of position. It’s just interesting to see how managers’ “expertise” plays out. Hopefully Slot is taking notes. Cheers Josh!

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Andrew Beasley's avatar

I don't have much faith in Southgate. I don't care much about England (now; I used to) but I keep a close eye on them for work purposes.

Here's the thing, for me: it might feel like longer, but the last World Cup was only about 18 months ago. Half of the 26-man England squad which went to Qatar is not at the Euros this summer. You can argue over the merits of each individual call and the reasons for exclusion vary but ultimately that's a huge turnover for a team which played just 13 matches between finishing the last World Cup and starting at Euro 2024.

This obviously does not excuse Southgate for not getting more from a squad Transfermarkt values at 1.5bn euros, more than any club side in the world. Far from it. He chose the squad, after all. As I wrote elsewhere a week or two back when pondering changes to the XI:

"Southgate could turn to Jarrod Bowen or Eberechi Eze or Anthony Gordon or Ivan Toney or Cole Palmer but none of them have scored a non-penalty goal or set one up for England."

Toney at least has an assist now! Southgate backed himself into a corner by having a squad loaded with players who he doesn't fully trust, and/or have yet to do much of note at international level.

And because football is stupid and their players are talented, England could easily win the Euros. Southgate would get a knighthood when the win will likely have been achieved in spite of him rather than because of his efforts.

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