MADRID, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — Gareth Southgate leads England into their third major tournament under his charge in Qatar and the question mark is whether it will be third time lucky for the manager, who took them to the semi-finals in Russia 2018 and the final in EC this summer.
As a player, the 52-year-old had an excellent club career with Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough and, despite never playing for one of England’s biggest clubs, earned a reputation as one of the smartest defenders.
Perhaps the fact that Southgate started his career in midfield and only switched to playing in defense when he joined Aston Villa helped give him a wider perspective on the game, allowing him to win possession as much by anticipation than pace or power.
His penalty miss in the semi-final of Euro 1996 is probably still etched in the minds of many England fans, but Southgate bounced back from it to make a total of 57 caps.
When it came time for him to hang up his boots, he made the challenging transition from Middlesbrough captain to first-team manager, moving from the dressing room to the manager’s office essentially overnight and going from teammate to manager.
It was a difficult time for the club, who underwent a rebuilding process under financial constraints and after finishing 12th in his first season in charge, ‘Boro’ narrowly avoided the drop in his second season, before seeing a good start slip away away and end up in relegation and sacked at the end of 2009.
Most managers in his situation would have looked to get straight back into management, but Southgate moved into television as a pundit for Independent Television (ITV).
He also entered the England set-up in 2011, when he was appointed head of elite development, before replacing Stuart Pearce as England Under-21 coach in 2013.
During that period he worked with players such as John Stones, Harry Kane and James Ward-Prowse, who are still part of the England squad, and it also laid the groundwork for him to show faith in youth when he finally became national team manager.
Southgate initially said he did not want to replace Roy Hodgson after England’s debacle at Euro 2016, but after Sam Allardyce was forced to leave the job after just one game in charge following groin surgery, he became interim manager and the results of his four games saw him finally step up.
Hopes were not high for the 2018 World Cup and a look at England’s squad for that tournament shows they had a solid starting eleven, but with an important difference in talent between ‘starters’ and ‘substitutes’.
Southgate adapted to the circumstances, using a system of three centre-backs (making Harry Maguire a national hero) and wing-backs, minimizing England’s shortcomings and guiding them to the semi-finals, after beating Colombia in the round of 16 and cruising past Sweden in the quarter-finals.
Croatia were simply too good in the semi-final, but Southgate – smartly dressed in a vest and eloquent in his press conferences – had become a national hero.
That status would only increase in the following years as the arrival of new talent, such as Declan Rice, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Kalvin Phillips, Mason Mount and Jack Grealish, allowed him to adapt his style of play, bringing an extra man into in midfield and returns to a flat back four.
Home advantage certainly helped England, but there were some impressive displays en route to the Euro 2020 final (which will of course be played in 2021), with fans particularly enjoying a 2-0 win over Germany and an impressive 4-0 win against Ukraine in Gypsy.
In the end, it wouldn’t be 2021, but the progress looked clear. Apart from the fact that the last 15 months seem to have seen Southgate lose his way by switching from a back four to three center backs and full backs and back to a back four.
Meanwhile, he has continued to call up new players, while others, such as Marcos Rashford and Jaydon Sancho, appear to have fallen out of favour.
England were very poor in the last Nations League when Southgate hacked and changed and what looked like steady progress looks to have hit a wall of confusion.
Six years in the England job is probably enough to burn anyone and leave them with a crisis of confidence: Has it happened to Southgate, or is it all part of his ‘plan’?
The coming month will tell all, but it seems likely that even if he is under contract until 2024, this could be the international swansong for a likeable and intelligent man.