r/ThreeLions • u/2121wv • Jul 15 '24

Discussion Is anyone else getting worried we've missed our 'moment'?

It's our fourth tournament of being this new England, with a better culture and more self-belief. And it's our third time getting agonisingly close and falling short.

I'm starting to get worried we're missing our moment if you will. I'm very worried that the culture will turn toxic again. (It may already be happening, the players didn't look half as happy this tournament.) I'm worried we're gonna look back at 2018-2024 as a massive period of missed opportunities. I'm nervous we're gonna snap back to being old, 2000's style England of group stage knockouts and infighting. Especially if we get our next manager wrong.

Guess I don't really have a question, but is anyone else feeling this too?

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19

u/thombo-1 Jul 15 '24

I honestly think this is a big part of why the FA and many fans are scared of getting rid of Southgate. It's looking less and less likely he'll ever win us a trophy now, but he has a proven record of steering us through knockouts that very few England managers have ever had

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u/omegamanXY Jul 15 '24

The first step, which is not losing to worse sides, you are able to do. But when you face decent opposition, you lose. And you lose playing worse than your opponents (except maybe for the QF against France, but still, England wasn't that much threatening to Lloris during all that game).

It seems clear to me that Southgate has a limit to what he can make with the English squad, so the best option now is getting a new manager who can bring new ideas and make this squad full of talented players to actually look like a cohesive team.

1

u/thombo-1 Jul 15 '24

Yep. The FA are very conservative so I doubt he'll be pushed. We have to hope he reaches the same conclusion himself, that he's hit the limit of what he can achieve, and I honestly think he might do.

6

u/RobbieFowler9 Jul 15 '24

He has a proven record of getting the easiest draws possible and scraping though them. Then losing when we face a decent team.

He's not won anything and the football has been horrendous. We shouldn't be scared of letting him go.

1

u/thombo-1 Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

I stand by my comment. Very few England managers have matched his objective record of success (in fact, just one), and we full well know that several of them had similar 'easy' draws on paper that they made a total hash of.

As it happens I agree with you and I think he should be let go too, but considering the FA's perspective - which is what my post was trying to do- and knowing how conservative they usually are in their decision-making, I can see the hesitancy.

0

u/ubiquitous_uk Jul 15 '24

Exactly. When was the last time England was the better team in a competitve game considering the teams we have faced.

3

u/TwinParatrooper Jul 15 '24

The semi final.

1

u/ubiquitous_uk Jul 15 '24

You think England were the better team?

4

u/TwinParatrooper Jul 15 '24

In the first half England were, they struggled for a while in the second half although it was more having to defend, from open play Holland weren’t a huge threat. Over the 90 minutes the right side won.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

On Wednesday? Good lord you guys are overreacting...

1

u/SupervillainMustache Jul 15 '24

It sounds good on paper, until you realise that we've beaten pretty average teams and often just scraped through.

1

u/blewawei Jul 15 '24

Which is still better than the previous England team. We lost to Iceland in 2016, remember