I think after the relative success of WC 2018 the England squad/team largely picked itself. Southgate has never had to deal with “generational” talents emerging and upsetting his cosy wee set up. Now for the first time he’s got to properly think about team selection he’s fucked. Which was very likely always on the cards.
Tbf he had Foden and Bellingham at the WC in Qatar but neither of them at that point had come off the back of what might prove to be the best seasons in their club careers’ which makes them completely different propositions in terms of how they’re perceived by the general public and more significantly for Southgate personally the English football media. He knew he’d be fuckin crucified if he didn’t pick them both.
He probably knew without a proper left back the logical pick on the left was Gordon with his Kenyan marathon runners’ stamina combined with a sprinter’s electric pace he would’ve been able to patrol the entire left hand side single handed and interact with the attacking midfielders as he’d done very effectively in the recent firiendly games, rather than relying on an an overlapping full back to provide support more often than not. Looks the same the other side re Saka/Palmer.
Southgate has got it half right, he picked the PL’s form players in the squad. Then he went with loyalty to those in his pecking order and has shown signs this week that he’s willing to ditch them if it’s not going right. Has he got the balls to start Gordon, Palmer and Mainoo on Sunday?… for me he needs to drop one of the two that have caused all this bother for him this summer too.. two of the best half dozen attacking players in Europe… thing is, his coach at Euro 96 Terry Venables has shown him the way him. No fuckin way would virtually any other manager have stick with Shearer before the tournament started. The strikers ignored by Venables in favour of Shearer and the 30 year old Sheringham is fuckin jaw dropping. Venables told him not to listen to the press and he was his no.9. He told STEVE FUCKIN HOWEY in the winter of 1996 that he was in the squad, not only that but he was starting 2 out of the 3 group games (Howey said all this in a podcast) That’s the sort of single mindedness required but I don’t think nice guy Gareth has ever been remotely equipped to think along those lines. He wants to make everyone happy including the media. Venables knew he knew more about football than the craven tabloid wankers that followed the England team around in the mid 90s . More importantly he made damn sure that they all knew he knew more than them too. That’s a rare gift. We’ll see if Gareth has learned anything on Sunday…
