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!
I’ve never considered boiling a banana.. I just googled it.. apparently it makes them really nice and sweet and you can make banana tea which is very good for you and helps you sleep 😂🤷♂️
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.
Great post… I do think Southgate would have been massacred for picking rashford and grealish over Gordon, palmer etc though.
It’s true the bench don’t have many actual foes and assists.. but neither does the starting left wing… 1 G+A in 9,10?
I think Southgate made the right call to pick on form… but I’m not sure what impression it gives to the squad if he clearly doesn’t trust the players enough to use them.
If you don’t have the trust to put Trent on when you’ve got two big centre forwards and about to go of the tournament.. having had zero shots on target.. when would you. 3 nil down?
What is Gordon thinking? Watching that left flank all tournament..
It’s strange to think he doesn’t trust these players.. he clearly did trust Trent, started him twice..
When I saw the title, my immediate thought was “heck,no!” Love the analogy of the chef! Having top-quality players, like having the finest ingredients, without the right tactics and strategy—the recipe— is a reminder that success on the pitch, just like in the kitchen, requires more than just the best components. Can’t just chuck the ingredients into a pot, cook for 90 minutes and hope a decent result emerges. Here's hoping the manager/chef finds that winning recipe soon!
An excellent insight to Southgate and H'ingerland's perpetual problem. My arl felleh, now me in me dotage, had this this thing about instant coffee, (he was a Cunard Yank),. When we were out the house, back in the 50/60s, he would always say no when offered coffee because he said no-fucker can make decent coffee. Expect shite so just say 'no' from the off' was his approach. He did this not because he didn't want to offend when he gagged on the first sip, it was because he just didn't see the need to drink garbage. Gareth takes the right ingredients into his kitchen...great coffee grounds, Demarera sugar, the lot, leaves them on display and gets out the Neto instant powder that he'd left the lid off 3 weeks before. Me arl fellah's response would be 'why did you watch it, ffs?' The answer to that is probably because we are Footy preverts or we can't leave a good scab alone. Ta Josh, lad.
I’ve been shocked. I’ve always defended Southgate because his recipes always made sense given the ingredients..
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This tournament has been weird. I felt one of Southgate’s strengths was sticking with players who actually delivered (ie saka, Bellingham) and being willing to try and change ones who didn’t (Foden)
At the last worldcup I was impressed with the starting team, and then when Bellingham was shifted into the further forward “freer” 8/10 role and Henderson brought in to provide more cohesion and structure.
But this tournament has baffled me. Impressed with Trent’s selection and role and the first 35 mins.. but fodens roaming role doesn’t work, especially without a left footed left back who would apparently keep the width..
Fine. So change foden for Gordon or Eze and keep the shape and system, and give that pace behind Kane and someone for Trent to pass to. This would also give width with no left footer..
Instead of which the left side and team got even worse as Foden continued to roam and leave it unoccupied, and instead of Trent’s passing we had Gallagher.
I thought Foden and Bellingham would rotate.. keeping a player wide.. which they did by the third game. Which also seemed to have been abandoned yesterday. And foden generally confuses me.
What I find really strange is that football has become such a systems game, and we are so used to coaches understanding how their system is meant to work.. having worked on a system for a year and missing shaw… it seems like someone else made the system for Southgate and he doesn’t understand what changes are required to make the system work..
Like a chef who can follow a recipes with the exact ingredients but doesn’t understand how to cook
Southgate is insane for not taking a fit left-back, so he hasn’t made things easy for himself.
After what I’ve witnessed so far, I’d probably try 4-3-3 with Pickford; Walker, Stones, Guehi, Saka; Rice, Trent, Bellingham; Palmer, Gordon, Kane.
I’m not fussed on who you choose from Trent/Mainoo/Wharton. And I’m not fussed on Palmer/Foden either. But at least in that system, you’d have players doing natural things and helping each other in the process.
Interesting.. you’d go saka to LB? It may well end up the solution… he didn’t sound keen & has been a revelation for England at RW since debut really…
I kind of think You can manage without a left footed left back but can’t really have someone cutting in front.. and would probably have gone with Gomez because he has played it more and has the pace to overlap and get back and cover.
I kind of feel like if you’re playing Kane you need runner behind and around him.. so a 433 with Gordon, Kane, saka, Jude & mainoo as 8’s and then rice, Gomez, Guehi, stones walker.. and you push Gomez up and let him tuck in next to rice.
Or you could build a team around creating space for Bellingham as a 10 and Trent passing and go high energy pacey 4231.. Gordon, Watkins, saka, Bellingham, Trent rice, same back 4, Gomez tucking in and Trent therefore allowed to roam..
I don’t actually see a problem dropping Kane to the bench because if he has 1 shot per game when starting he can come off the bench if needed.. and I genuinely don’t think Foden knows how to impact a game outside of pep’s system.. he has such little material impact for England.
I kind of think simplicity and quality over intricacy for internationals 🤷♂️pace and directness are under rated.
Eitherway I probably would have gone full klopp with the subs and 3-5 changes at 60mins, 80mins in each game. Bring real intensity in the front 5 and keep people rotated.
But then none of my selections will happen and he’ll probably go with the same team + shaw… 😂
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!
I’ve never considered boiling a banana.. I just googled it.. apparently it makes them really nice and sweet and you can make banana tea which is very good for you and helps you sleep 😂🤷♂️
No way! Ha! Tried to think of the most outlandish thing possible, maybe Gareth is onto something..
Well our left side is very soft and they make you fall asleep 👀
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.
Great post… I do think Southgate would have been massacred for picking rashford and grealish over Gordon, palmer etc though.
It’s true the bench don’t have many actual foes and assists.. but neither does the starting left wing… 1 G+A in 9,10?
I think Southgate made the right call to pick on form… but I’m not sure what impression it gives to the squad if he clearly doesn’t trust the players enough to use them.
If you don’t have the trust to put Trent on when you’ve got two big centre forwards and about to go of the tournament.. having had zero shots on target.. when would you. 3 nil down?
What is Gordon thinking? Watching that left flank all tournament..
It’s strange to think he doesn’t trust these players.. he clearly did trust Trent, started him twice..
It’s very very strange. Like Southgate froze.
When I saw the title, my immediate thought was “heck,no!” Love the analogy of the chef! Having top-quality players, like having the finest ingredients, without the right tactics and strategy—the recipe— is a reminder that success on the pitch, just like in the kitchen, requires more than just the best components. Can’t just chuck the ingredients into a pot, cook for 90 minutes and hope a decent result emerges. Here's hoping the manager/chef finds that winning recipe soon!
An excellent insight to Southgate and H'ingerland's perpetual problem. My arl felleh, now me in me dotage, had this this thing about instant coffee, (he was a Cunard Yank),. When we were out the house, back in the 50/60s, he would always say no when offered coffee because he said no-fucker can make decent coffee. Expect shite so just say 'no' from the off' was his approach. He did this not because he didn't want to offend when he gagged on the first sip, it was because he just didn't see the need to drink garbage. Gareth takes the right ingredients into his kitchen...great coffee grounds, Demarera sugar, the lot, leaves them on display and gets out the Neto instant powder that he'd left the lid off 3 weeks before. Me arl fellah's response would be 'why did you watch it, ffs?' The answer to that is probably because we are Footy preverts or we can't leave a good scab alone. Ta Josh, lad.
Lovely.. working that metaphor!
I’ve been shocked. I’ve always defended Southgate because his recipes always made sense given the ingredients..
a
This tournament has been weird. I felt one of Southgate’s strengths was sticking with players who actually delivered (ie saka, Bellingham) and being willing to try and change ones who didn’t (Foden)
At the last worldcup I was impressed with the starting team, and then when Bellingham was shifted into the further forward “freer” 8/10 role and Henderson brought in to provide more cohesion and structure.
But this tournament has baffled me. Impressed with Trent’s selection and role and the first 35 mins.. but fodens roaming role doesn’t work, especially without a left footed left back who would apparently keep the width..
Fine. So change foden for Gordon or Eze and keep the shape and system, and give that pace behind Kane and someone for Trent to pass to. This would also give width with no left footer..
Instead of which the left side and team got even worse as Foden continued to roam and leave it unoccupied, and instead of Trent’s passing we had Gallagher.
I thought Foden and Bellingham would rotate.. keeping a player wide.. which they did by the third game. Which also seemed to have been abandoned yesterday. And foden generally confuses me.
What I find really strange is that football has become such a systems game, and we are so used to coaches understanding how their system is meant to work.. having worked on a system for a year and missing shaw… it seems like someone else made the system for Southgate and he doesn’t understand what changes are required to make the system work..
Like a chef who can follow a recipes with the exact ingredients but doesn’t understand how to cook
How would you set the team up Josh?
Southgate is insane for not taking a fit left-back, so he hasn’t made things easy for himself.
After what I’ve witnessed so far, I’d probably try 4-3-3 with Pickford; Walker, Stones, Guehi, Saka; Rice, Trent, Bellingham; Palmer, Gordon, Kane.
I’m not fussed on who you choose from Trent/Mainoo/Wharton. And I’m not fussed on Palmer/Foden either. But at least in that system, you’d have players doing natural things and helping each other in the process.
Interesting.. you’d go saka to LB? It may well end up the solution… he didn’t sound keen & has been a revelation for England at RW since debut really…
I kind of think You can manage without a left footed left back but can’t really have someone cutting in front.. and would probably have gone with Gomez because he has played it more and has the pace to overlap and get back and cover.
I kind of feel like if you’re playing Kane you need runner behind and around him.. so a 433 with Gordon, Kane, saka, Jude & mainoo as 8’s and then rice, Gomez, Guehi, stones walker.. and you push Gomez up and let him tuck in next to rice.
Or you could build a team around creating space for Bellingham as a 10 and Trent passing and go high energy pacey 4231.. Gordon, Watkins, saka, Bellingham, Trent rice, same back 4, Gomez tucking in and Trent therefore allowed to roam..
I don’t actually see a problem dropping Kane to the bench because if he has 1 shot per game when starting he can come off the bench if needed.. and I genuinely don’t think Foden knows how to impact a game outside of pep’s system.. he has such little material impact for England.
I kind of think simplicity and quality over intricacy for internationals 🤷♂️pace and directness are under rated.
Eitherway I probably would have gone full klopp with the subs and 3-5 changes at 60mins, 80mins in each game. Bring real intensity in the front 5 and keep people rotated.
But then none of my selections will happen and he’ll probably go with the same team + shaw… 😂