Since Gareth Southgate was appointed England manager in 2017 on the back of the Sam Allardyce scandal there has been a lot of hype surrounding him, with England fans being excited that he has brought an attacking style of football back to the England team – at least when compared to the tactics of former managers – and that he guided England to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup – a stark improvement from losing to Iceland in the 2016 European Championship. However, despite England’s apparent progress under Southgate at the 2018 World Cup there are many England fans who remain unsure whether Southgate has the credentials needed to be England manager, and who argue that Southgate’s “achievements” have been overstated.
The reason for this lack of confidence in Southgate’s ability to achieve real success with England is due to the calibre of opposition England faced at the 2018 World Cup and the unique dynamic of the 2018 World Cup. At the 2018 World Cup England reached the semi-final by defeating inferior nations who they were expected to beat, with them losing to the two decent nations they did face – Belgium in the last group stage match when qualification to the knockout round was already secured, and Croatia in the Semi-final. Defenders of Southgate insist that the quality of opposition was out of Southgate and England’s control, with England only able to beat the teams that are put in front of them and that Southgate did win England’s first penalty shootout in 28 years.
While it is true that England can only beat the teams that are put in front of them, it is also true than in a normal World Cup or European Championship a nation will not have such an easy route to a semi-final – big nations such as Germany and Spain will not usually get knocked out so early or so easily – with them being forced to overcome big nations. This means that England need to learn to beat big nations, and their performances in the 2018 World Cup and beyond have done nothing but reaffirm many people’s opinion that England under Southgate are unable to beat big nations – if England cannot beat big nations in friendly matches then what hope do England have to beat them at the World Cup or European Championship. Consequently, despite his critics giving him credit for improving the style of football England play by making it more attacking and adopting multiple formations to make England more adaptable and difficult to face, and resolving England’s struggles against inferior teams, there is a belief that he is overhyped as a manager and that England were very lucky with how other teams failed to perform at the 2018 World Cup.
As a result, as counterintuitive as it may seem to people on the surface, at the 2020 European Championships Southgate will be under considerable pressure – more pressure than England managers are usually under – to prove that he can live up to the hype that has surrounded him over the last few years by winning the European Championships and beating strong national teams on the way, otherwise he may be forced to say goodbye to the England job.
