- England manager Gareth Southgate must be more decisive in his actions
- The Three Lions face Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals
- LISTEN: Join us as we discuss the MOST IMPORTANT talking points on It’s all just beginning! EUROS DAILY. Available wherever you get your podcasts
Gareth, do something!!
It’s rare for a football journalist to feel any emotion when covering a game. I always use the word “anesthesia” to describe the numbness that comes with being faced with the joys and tensions of being a football fan.
You love what you do, but you’re not as invested in the outcome as the grown man in face paint a few rows over.
But on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen, things were different. It was not really patriotism or feeling overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the qualifiers for a major football tournament.
No, it was irritation. A real tremor, totally involuntary, induced by pure frustration.
Gareth Southgate must be more decisive when England face Switzerland in the quarter-finals
A moment of brilliance from Jude Bellingham set the stage for a dramatic overtime showdown
Gareth, do something!!
England lost 1-0 to Slovakia, and rightly so. Slovakia is ranked 45th in the world.
There were 45 minutes left to play and Southgate had decided not to make any changes at half-time. Then there were 40 minutes left to play, then 35, 30, 25. Still, no changes.
The substitutes got heated, but not as much as those in the stands, bubbling with annoyance. It was an injustice.
Where were the players who would visibly encourage this sleepy group sleepwalking towards defeat?
Answer: They were sitting on the bench with sore necks, each of their heads fixed directly in the direction of the rabbit in the spotlights.
Gareth, do something!!
With 24 minutes remaining and Kieran Trippier out with a knock to the knee, Southgate was forced to make a change. Cole Palmer came on. There was a slight improvement, but more was needed.
Late innings in England’s win over Slovakia turned the tide of the match
He needed everything he had at hand. Rather, it seemed as if Southgate was throwing in the dishcloth. It was almost another 20 minutes until his next substitution.
Was it a matter of keeping faith, as many have suggested? If so, it was blind faith. By the 94th minute, England had not registered a shot on target.
Gareth, do something!!
Finally, in the 95th minute, the change that changed the game came: Ivan Toney, as upset as the rest of us, entered the field.
I later wrote that Southgate deserved credit for that. What nonsense. Given what Toney did in 30 seconds, what could he (and others, such as the surprisingly underused Anthony Gordon) have achieved in 30 minutes?
Because proclaiming Southgate the ultimate gambler for keeping the faith and getting his reward is as absurd as claiming his substitution of Toney was inspired.
Bellingham celebrates with England captain and eventual match winner Harry Kane
Striker Ivan Toney impressed, but only after spending much of the match on the bench.
England were lucky. The irritation, the one that makes your body shiver, was that England didn’t have to be lucky.
It’s disrespectful to their quality to rely on moments of genius like Jude Bellingham’s.
So this weekend is the time for Southgate to take charge, for Southgate to influence England’s destiny, for Southgate to emerge from this state of paralysis, confusion and freeze in which he finds himself trapped here in Germany.
It’s time for Gareth to do something.
