Finding the Southgate Legacy
Here we are again. Another semi-final for England. That’s odd to say, but here we are. A lot of what I’ve written on the site has been against Southgate, and yet he continues to graft a group of players that make us believe.
During the majority of the 90, questions are still to be answered from Southgate’s Three Lions, and whilst we will all bemoan the play style and lack of goals, we’ve more than reached the ‘who cares?’ stage of the tournament.
The greatest achievement of this England era has been the connectivity and togetherness of each group that have gone to tournaments. Whilst we all scream at the TV for the way each game plays out. Southgate’s side consistently finds a way to get the win. And that’s what you need in knockout football.
International football is deep hole of scrutiny, with whole countries on your back if you can’t get it together, you can’t change things with a transfer, you choose a group and its up to the whole collective to reach the promise land.
I, like most, have been a heavy critic of Southgate from anything from tactics, to squad selection, it has been almost easy to forget what preceded this level of success. But it is Southgate who has allowed to us to believe that we should be at this level, that we truly can actually win something.
I looked at patterns of former Southgate sides, one’s which include all sorts of variations to experience and quality, and highlighted why this squad is different. Against Switzerland we had to go to penalties, and the identity of 2024 England showed. We finally had a feeling like 2021.
It’s a longshot to really believe the legacy that Southgate will leave will be anything to do with how we played in 90 mins, it will rather be how we were as group, not just the players but the fans, and the country. How we felt on those days where somehow, someway, we overcame everything that had stopped us before.
It’s possible that is the side that really embodies what the England Manager has done and wants to show. A young team, that maybe doesn’t always look that pretty, but has the confidence to step up and find a way.
Three years ago, I wrote a piece following the 0-0 draw with Scotland conceding ‘Togetherness will get you far, but a lack of tactical awareness will see you fall’ and I have never hoped I am more wrong.
I once was against our manager, but I hope Gareth Southgate gets to go out on top, after allowing us to really believe like our fathers didn’t get to, to give a generation of kids, summers like we thought we could only dream of. Football is something special and Southgate, no matter how hard the graft, he has given us an England where the dream is in-site.
