Just a slightly different tack to the formation/tactics comments. Looking at the England Netherlands game I would personally suggest that the Dutch have the best coach. Its the manager that is the key for me in latter stages so I humbly suggest that England, rather than 'it' are coming home What do folk think?
Based on the gaffers it’s a France v. Holland final every day of the week. But Spain, and particularly England have the individual players who can turn it in their favour. Either way all 3 remaining games will be boring as hell.
True, but one could say Southgate has a great record. I dont think Southgate is any good at all myself but statistically he's done really well overall. And, we're in yet another semi. Weird that so many like me think he's pants when on paper he's good.
The football France have played this tournament has made Southgate's England look positive and dynamic. With a squad that's arguably no worse than ours.
That's not how many French commentators regard him, he's criticised for his negative football..don't forget they're in the semi finals without having scored a proper goal, only a penalty and two own goals.
To be fair, they also criticised his football during the world cup when they won it! I think it's similar to us. Quality players with quality moments win the matches for 'em. By best manager, you'd have to say him due to his trophies but I'm not convinced he's the best tactician
I'd argue that's because international football is about the players far more than the manager. You could put the best manager in the world in charge of san Marino and they wouldn't beat an England team managed by Marcus schopp
Yes I tend to agree, I think he's done an excellent job in bringing the players together, camaraderie, team work, working for each other, etc. But a part of me still thinks a lot is down to it being despite Southgate, not because. Tactically, he just isn't brilliant or on the level of many other managers at this tournament imo mate.
I half agree here. Certainly it's far more difficult to create a national team that's greater than the sum of its parts, simply because the players don't have the time together to gel like they do in club football. However, I think Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey have all proved that you can drastically improve the performance relative to the quality of the players just by being well-organised and sticking to an effective system. And yet they're all out of the tournament, while two of the remaining semi-finalists have looked pretty awful for most of the tournament. It's no coincidence that they have the two strongest squads on paper, suggesting that top players at international level will still trump astute management in most cases.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that England will lose v the Dutch. The Dutch will then go on to win the final?