The manager has publicly backed down on inclusivity and social issues: unsurprising in a sport that left him nowhere to goThere was something oddly gripping this week about re-entering the distinct and self-contained narrative world of the Gareth Southgate England press conference.These are the kind of events that disappear completely from the memory in between times. But one glimpse of that stern, avian profile frowning dutifully in front of a board covered with adverts and you’re hurled back instantly into a wholly realised place of tortured moral compromise, of penitent tactical self-justification, all of it ringed off-stage by the massed buttock-launching rocket assaults of English discontent. Continue reading...
Forward now sits at the top of a golden seam of main men after goal in Naples – and his mark of 54 goals will be difficult to beatThere was an agreeable note of pantomime when the moment came for Harry Kane. Goalscoring records don’t matter, perhaps, or shouldn’t matter, are just numbers in the book. And yet of course they do matter, not least in international football, with its sense of duty and history and ritual.And somehow it always seemed likely Kane would get his chance to take that England record in this wonderful mini-epic of a qualifier, with England just about holding on to take a thrilling 2-1 victory. Continue reading...
As his last tournament cycle starts, let’s appreciate a manager who has endured a grossly disproportionate level of derisionGareth Southgate, the whole of England is with you. Perhaps this was the first and last point at which these words were ever spoken truthfully. Perhaps it wasn’t even true at the time. The inevitable tranche of snark and eyeball-rolling at Southgate’s latest England squad belies the fact that very little of substance has changed in the three months since the defeat against France.The seven midfielders are the same as they were in Qatar. Harry Maguire is still in the centre of defence. Harry Kane’s penalty is still airborne. And for all the soul-searching and agonising, Southgate too is still there: still...
Gareth Southgate’s team have reached par in Qatar – but defeating the world champions will require something differentTowards the end of Gareth Southgate’s post-match press conference, deep in the harshly lit fibreglass bunker that is the Al Bayt Stadium media suite, England’s manager was asked by an Argentinian journalist for his thoughts on the prospect down the track of having to face Lionel Messi. “Well,” Southgate frowned, making a show of giving the question all due consideration. “He’s a good player.” As super-dry wee-hours press room one-liners go, it was pretty good.After that Southgate just kind of shrugged and said something like, yeah, he’s a genius but we’ll worry about that if it happens. England have to play France first...
A tactical tweak against Wales turned England into fun entertainers and for that Southgate deserves huge creditIn praise of Gareth. Can we take a moment to do this now? Can we just suck that sweetness down? Because this was a very good game for England and their manager, a manager who has, for all his success, his status as pretty much the most sensible person currently active in English public life, had a weirdly vitriolic year and a half.It was a good game for Gareth Southgate because England were bad at first, and then they were good, and good thanks to a stroke of tactical switchery that broke the game open. It was good because players Southgate brought in ended...