Should England keep Gareth Southgate as manager?

England may have sealed qualification for the 2018 World Cup on Thursday night with a 1-0 victory against Slovenia, but the performance of the team may have been one of the most lifeless, lackluster and boring performances from the England team in a long time.

It’s been a recurring pattern for Southgate,who has been the manager of the national team for the last eight months and has attempted to change the way the team plays. Long gone are the days of England playing 4-4-2, hoofing the ball high up the pitch to a tall striker to knock it down to hit into a pacey smaller striker with two fast wingers looking to race down the wing to cross a high ball in, with the whole team having the philosophy of ‘working hard’ by running all over the pitch.

An admirable idea that may have worked decades ago, but one that has also shown itself to be incredible outdated that has cost England numerous times in previous tournaments – including earlier this century when they had their ‘Golden Generation’. So in a way, Southgate does deserve some level of praise for attempting to change the English identity and the way that the team plays.

It’s a change that ultimately needed to happen. England have been underwhelming in International tournaments for nearly a decade now – failing to even qualify for the 2008 European Championships, a lackluster 2010 World Cup which saw them struggle against the USA and Algeria before being hammered by Germany, being eliminated in the group stages in the 2014 World Cup and another disappointing 2016 European Championships that saw England win one game before being eliminated against Iceland.

Despite what some might believe, England do have a good crop of players in their team – Harry Kane is a legitimate world-class striker, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Dele Alli, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, John Stones, Eric Dier, all provide England with a solid supporting cast of players.

Perhaps not one that could potentially win the World Cup but one that should do well at any international tournament that they feature in and especially in the qualifiers – which England did win their group without losing a game so far. England’s youth teams have done incredibly well in the youth tournaments that should signify some change in how England approach the game and give hope for a better future.

But yet, despite this, any England will not be having high hopes for the upcoming World Cup next summer. Even the most optimistic England fan will not believing that ‘Football will be coming home’ when England head to Russia next summer. But not even the ridiculous expectations of winning the entire competition are what anybody expects – there are zero expectations for this England team in next years World Cup.

Southgate might have changed the way England play but it isn’t one that is good to watch or overly effective. England usually romp their way through the qualifiers at the very least but this time England have limped their way through, playing possession football for the sheer sake of possession football.

Southgate’s football is almost similar to the way Spain would play at their worst or Louis Van Gaal at Manchester United; merely keeping the ball and passing it around without really doing much. It isn’t a style of play that suits England and it almost appears that it’s a desperate attempt to try to make a change without putting much thought into it. When you look at the England team, the core of the team plays for Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and the two Manchester clubs – none of whom play the way that England currently are and it is baffling as to why Southgate is insistent on playing the way England are.

When you watch those four clubs play, you see those players playing in a style of play that involves pressing high up the pitch and attacking teams, the intensity is much higher and it could not be any more opposite to way that England do.

Why does Southgate not emulate that style of play for the national team when he knows the players he has are accustomed to that style of play and can excel in it? Spain copied the Barcelona style of play when their team consisted of mostly Barcelona players and were able to win everything in their path. But inevitably, it is hard to see what the English FA legitimately expect from Southgate.

Do they realistically expect him to be able to do better than Hodgson or Capello? If they do, why? Southgate has never achieved anything in his career, his most notable ‘achievement’ was relegating Middlesbrough from the Premiership. Would he really have gotten any job in the Premiership or even the Championship at the top level? It’s baffling as to how he managed to get the job in the first place.

But should England get rid of him? If they want to do better than they have in the last decade, then yes. Southgate is not the caliber of manager to guide England to anything, but rather he is just another manager who will be able to do the bare minimum which is getting England into an international tournament. If that’s good enough for the English FA, then he should stay in the job.

• Published on 10/08/2017 at 4:27 AM EST
• Last updated on 10/08/2017 at 4:27 AM EST