It seems the Gareth Southgate critics were just biding their time. The Mailbox is here...
Date published: Thursday 1st December 2022 9:17 -
Our World Cup campaign didn’t end against an ominously good England team in 2nd gear, it ended after two games when beatable opposition were given a helping hand with poor selection and tactics. A two man midfield featuring a barely fit Ramsey? Seriously? There is no way Rob Page would have been given the job if Ryan Giggs hadn’t been forced to step down. He’s simply not at the required level. He’s proven over two tournaments that his reach doesn’t exceed his tactical grasp.
The thing that I am most happy about with Wales is that, for a decade, we’ve had prime Bale and prime Rambo playing together, and we have made those tournaments and done well, and there’s not a huge amount of nations out there with one or two star players can say that. Gabon haven’t made the World Cup. Liberia never made the World Cup.
Likelihood is the brakes come back on, Rashford and Foden back out – they could have scored a hattrick each and they’d still be out – and we struggle to beat Senegal before being ripped open by France. We all know that’s likely, but why should France even be favourites?Is Mbappe a better option than Kane? While we always seem to do better on the counter, because it’s organic rather than planned or coached, we also know that we’ll spend the game on the back foot and then try to steal a goal.
Euros 2020 beat Croatia and Czechs narrowly, drew with Scotland, beat Germany in round of 16, then Ukraine in the quarters, a semi win against Denmark, then final defeat to Italy. Again, we lost to the first half decent team we played, namely Italy. Italy had to beat Belgium and Spain on their way to the final.
That is the criticism of Southgate – he has had extraordinary, once in a lifetime luck and the benefit of an attacking choice almost incomparable in world football, and he has, up to this point, wasted it. I don’t hate him, I don’t want to destroy him, boo him, make fun of him or the media to mock him, I just want him to play to the obvious strengths of his team!
The main argument for this is quality. There are more top quality European nations, therefore Europe should have more places. While it’s undoubtedly true that European nations are stronger, I don’t think that is what the World Cup is about. The World Cup is about a competition of nations from around the World. I would much rather watch Ghana v South Korea than Serbia v Switzerland, regardless of the perceived quality.
The only way to address the imbalance is to add more teams, unless you want to take away places from Europe. Even in the new format Europe will get some extra places . I think that’s good though. Some may have laughed when Italy didn’t qualify this year. I didn’t. I want all the top nations at the World Cup.
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