+- Sports Babble - sports forum (https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk)
+-- Forum: Football (https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: International Matches (https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=153)
+---- Forum: The World Cup (https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=276)
+---- Thread: Certs' for the Quarters (/showthread.php?tid=10794)
Certs' for the Quarters - Devongone - 09-11-2021
Gareth Southgate seems quite a nice guy. He was a whole-hearted footballer. His heart is in the right place. BUT BUT BUT ......
If England win The World Cup, or any major tournament with him in charge, it is going to be a tribute to our how much our players are better than anyone else's and illustrate that sometimes even your manager can't stop you winning.
He has managed to select an England squad with three goalkeepers, in a country almost devoid of goalkeeping talent, and has succeeded in leaving out the only proper goalkeeper we have. The man clearly doesn't known what he is doing. Nicky Pope is the only goalkeeper we have.
To cap his bizarre selection he drags in a cluster of out-of-form and possibly injury-carrying centre backs and leaves out the most in-form central defender, who he did have in his last squad - Fikayo Tomori, who has been deserving the raves he's been getting in Milan.
Emile Smith-Rowe, who has been dragging Arsenal up the league every week, is consigned to the U-21s and has only gained late recognition when illness and public reaction forced a place for him in the squad.
We should have taken notice during the Euros when whatever Jack Grealish did with his shin pads and however many free kicks he won when allowed onto the field of play, could never gain him more than the odd few minutes on an actual pitch, that this was conservative selection for the dyed-in-the-wool reactionaries. We've a got a tanner-each-way and half-o'-bitter man in charge. It isn't that we're going nowhere. We're going exactly where we're aiming for. The World Cup? We're a cert' for the Quarters.
RE: Certs' for the Quarters - hibeejim21 - 12-11-2021
My thoughts on Southgate are well known on here
RE: Certs' for the Quarters - 0762 - 14-11-2021
I notice the FA hinting that Southgate's contract being extended soon. So all stable in the England camp, but he'll ultimately be tactically undone again by international teams that are as good or better than the sides that he will opt to field in crucial matches that will be away from home soil.