The notion that England has somehow been underperforming under Southgate is not merely demonstrably unfounded in any fact, it's mental. They've been better than any other period in living memory. And the world in which it's some kind of aberration and grave letdown to lose for 2018 Croatia exists solely in the deluded minds of England fans with no grip on reality. Ditto the one where losing on penalties to that Italian team is somehow sub-standard. Same goes for the delusional belief that the talent level of the squad should more or less guarantee great success, or that the competition in international football is now somehow easy. Grow up.
England is not an elite European national team. You've never been one, for any length of time. Except, actually, under Southgate. Reaching semi-finals is a huge achievement, achieved only four times in the history of football.
I assume you mean 4 times in previous History ;
1966 wc, 1968 Euros, 1990 WC, 1996 Euros
So twice under Sir Alf, Bobby Robson, Terry Venables.
So yes if we include the Nation League Southgate has 3 Semi finals and One final
4th place WC, 3rd Place Nations League, 2nd Euros.
He deserves this tournament but his legacy may be his inefficiency to change in game and his stubbornness to listen, England will be relegated in the nations league and may not get out of the group in the WC then our love of Southgate will change in 1 or 2 weeks in Early December.
I do agree with your comment that England are not and have never been an elite international team however, most of these players like F Tomori, J Sancho, B Saka, D Henderson, P Foden, M Mount, DCL, all won the World Cup at youth level and won in style so this generation is used to wining at club and national level. They play for teams like City, Liverpool, Chelsea and even spurs who have all reached champions league finals in last 5 years, all this suggests that England right now have some really talented players.
Southgate’s success or failure will be similar to Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, Uruguay, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Denmark and Spain and will depend on whether FIFA agree on a 26 man or 23 squad. Five subs have already been agreed and this will help the 9 or 10 teams who can genuinely win this tournament this year, now should the squads be increased then those countries with the biggest pool of talent will fill their squads with more attacking options, it’s why I think England did so well at the Euros, Southgate would have only have taken 6 strikers in a 23 man squad. He did, however take 9 instead, H Kane, DCL, M Rashford, Sancho,P Foden, J Grealish, M Mount, B Saka and R Sterling. This is a huge benefit, if most of them are fit and on form you can plan two phases of attack by having a 3 starting places that may be more possession based players like Foden or Grealish then you can bring 2 or 3 on in game with different assets like pacey strikers to attack tired defenders.
The thought of defending against that pool of attacking talent with their pace, power and technical ability would scare most international teams in the same way that France, Brazil and Argentina’s options would too!
If a normal pragmatic Southgate who likes to take 3 GK, 9 defenders, 5 midfielders and 6 strikers. And he decides to starts 3, then one of the subs becomes injured during the tournament, one is suffering from loss of form , then as an opposition team you have less fear and you know how to plan to mitigate against the more limited options your opponent has. The new 5 sub rule in the PL is going to make the top 6 even stronger just like it has at world cups which always been a closed shop, I mentioned 9 or 10 teams can win but in reality the winner will come from France, Uruguay, Brazil, Germany, Spain, England and Argentina because history never lies.
what a load of rubbish, that is far from spot on.