In what could and indeed should be Gareth Southgate’s last game in charge of England, the Three Lions were once again beaten in the European Championships final.
It was Spain’s turn to carry on Harry Kane’s curse of never being able to win trophy, regardless of how brilliant of a side he plays for, three years after the team lost to Italy.
You’re probably expecting me to go all in on the Southgate criticism, as has been the custom on NUFCFeed over the past month, but guess what? Tonight, I’m not going to because, for once, I believe he got a lot of things right.
Luke Shaw was a great choice in lieu of Kieran Trippier. His substitutes went well and were done on time, with the exception of the late subs. However, even then, he altered his plan to include Conor Gallagher for an unspecified reason.
It’s time to move on from Harry Kane
He made a mistake by starting Harry Kane, who had been awful the whole tournament even though he entered the game as the tournament’s joint leading scorer. This continued tonight. A striker who drops deep, throws a beautiful pass forward, but then fails to move ahead of the action to occupy his position is of little value.
Following a tentative first forty-five minutes from both teams, it didn’t take long for Spain to have any influence in the second half. Within two minutes of the resumption, Nico Williams had put Spain ahead by one goal.
Southgate called for a change of tactics when England appeared to be lost and might have easily fallen down 2-0 in the next few minutes. When Ollie Watkins entered the picture, the
But as soon as England took the lead and scored, they began to allow Spain back into the game. As a result, in minute 86, Mikel Oyarzabal handed Spain the lead and gave England an impossible job.
The end of the road for Southgate?
Even though I am devastated to see England lose this tournament, I am holding out hope that this will be the final one under Gareth Southgate’s leadership, and ideally the final one with Harry Kane captaining the side.
If Southgate does step down, I doubt his successor will go so far as to not choose Kane going forward, but they most certainly won’t rely on him as their only striker.
If the cursed git hadn’t already won a few titles with Bayern Munich, I would personally keep him far away from tournament football.
It’s very stunning that Kieran Trippier, who had started every game before, didn’t even receive a kick in the final. It’s also best to keep talk of Anthony Gordon’s tournament as quiet as possible. There’s no need to make them feel worse off than they already are.
By the way, Joselu and Ayoze Perez are the current world champions of the European Championship.
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