Euro 2024: Time to show Southgate some love
Tournament football is about grit and grind and the England coach is successful because he gets that
Kolkata: Slow and stodgy wins the race. If the phrase is still not in use, it could be because England have not won the European championship yet.
But even if England don’t win what would be their second major men’s trophy 58 years after the first – and the only one away from home – credit, and a lot of it, is due to Gareth Southgate. In 2016, with Brexit in the background, he took charge of a team that had been knocked out of the Euro by Iceland. “An absolute lowest ebb,” said James Graham who wrote ‘Dear England”, a play on Southgate with Joseph Fiennes in the lead. Two years prior, England had been eliminated from the group stages of the World Cup without a win.
On Southgate’s watch, England are playing successive finals of the European championship – he is the only one who has taken them that far. For decades, England have been singing, “it’s coming home.” The possibility has looked real only under Southgate. With him in charge, England have also played a World Cup semi-final and a quarter-final where they were a missed penalty away from eliminating France.
England have not been Spain. Or Switzerland even. If Spain have been the definition of panache, England have been ponderous. In the Round of 16 and in the quarter-final, their first shots on target also proved to be last-gasp equalisers. Yes, for three successive knockout rounds, they chased matches. The draw was favourable with France, Germany, Portugal and Spain in the other half but that is hardly England’s fault. In Berlin they will be.
That makes the hostile criticism on Southgate seem harsh. The beer cups missed but the intention did not. And the jibes about money going down the drain following England surely would have reached him given that Harry Kane has said you cannot shut off social media in this age. All that makes Southgate’s reaction, his restraint remarkable.
“We all want to be loved, right?,” Southgate told reporters after England had seen off Holland 2-1 with their best performance of Euro 2024. “So, when you’re doing something for your country…. and when you don’t feel that back and when all you read is criticism, it’s hard.” Briefly, Southgate had said it like he felt it.
Tournament football is about grind and grit and England have shown that in spades. And it is because of that Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick and Ollie Watkins’ smart finish counted. Style and swagger winning major football tournaments stopped after the 1970 World Cup with France’s 1984 Euro, the genius of Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup and Germany in 2014 possibly being honourable exceptions. There may be more than one reason why Italy won the 1982 World Cup or West Germany in 1990, France in 1998 and Brazil in 2002 but being dogged and playing dour, spare football would be among them. Does anyone in Greece care that they were not pleasing in 2004?
“If you are bored, watch something else,” said Didier Deschamps. France have been successful because they do the boring stuff right. Southgate gets that.
From his time as head of elite player development, through when he was with England under-21s, he has been involved in trying to change the fortunes of the national team. The messaging was consistent for all national teams. Keith Cooper stressed on this when he came to India with for the under-17 World Cup (Phil Foden, Marc Guehi and Connor Gallagher are part of that squad as is Spain’s Ferran Torres). England were playing like Spain, Cooper would be told. No, we are playing like all our teams want to, the England under-17 coach would reply. England having 63% possession after 25 minutes, 64% at half-time and 59% overall against Holland is proof.
Breaking the penalties’ hoodoo is another of Southgate’s achievements. Even when he was a pundit in 2012, he had spoken of the need to work on the mental aspect. A reluctant penalty-taker who missed in the 1996 Euro semi-final, Southgate knew what he was talking about.
Since 2016, the English FA got experts who worked on breathing techniques, pacing the walk to the spot --- each player also has a designated mate to accompany him on the walk back --- focusing on the shot and ignoring the goalkeeper. Over time, England have also had more regular penalty takers. So, Southgate could substitute Kane and still beat Switzerland with five perfect penalties. In his time, England have won three out of the four matches that have gone to the tie-breaker.
Southgate was said to be reactive, reluctant in making substitutions. He has explained why. “You are probably about five per cent off where you would like to be. And therefore, you have got to be very careful not to throw everything out of the window… and lose continuity, and the confidence that comes from playing together, and the understanding that comes from those moments.”
Yet, he brought on Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw at half-time. On Wednesday, he opted for Ollie Watkins ahead of Ivan Toney because he pressed better, said Southgate. Against Slovakia, it was Toney who came on with barely a minute of stoppage-time left. “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t,” he said after Cole Palmer and Watkins combined for the winner on Wednesday. Against Slovakia, it was Toney who had made a vital contribution.
In his bland clothes and looking more lugubrious than usual, Southgate doesn’t have the charisma of, say, Murat Yakin, in the dug-out. But he does things his way. Self-effacing in the team’s hour of triumph, calm in the face of strident criticism, through waistcoat to T-shirt, a sartorial shift during which he has won more knockout matches than England had in five decades, Southgate deserves better than he has got.