sport news England boss Gareth Southgate's credit for reaching Euro 2020 final has run out ... trends now
The last time England faced Italy, Gareth Southgate's popularity was such he was asked beforehand who he would choose to play him in a film about his life. On Friday, less than a year later, he was asked why his team's football was not more exciting.
This is the life of the England football manager. In Southgate's orbit, taking England to their first major final in more than half a century only brought with it so much credit and it has run out.
On Friday he sat in a room at St George's Park to talk about this evening's Nations League game. There was some reflection on last summer's Euros final. He was asked, for example, if he still takes pride in his runners-up medal and he replied that, yes, he did.
Gareth Southgate addressed the media on Friday ahead of England's clash with Italy
European champions Italy are England's opponents in the Nations League at Molineux
Largely, though, Southgate was invited to revisit a topic that one senses is wearingly familiar to him, namely his team's style of play.
To many, Southgate's England are simply not beguiling enough to watch. They do not have enough of the ball. They do not have enough attacking players in the team. They play the wrong system. They only score lots of goals against the poor teams.
These are all valid observations and Southgate understands that. He also knows that last summer's efforts, coupled with the run to the last four of the 2018 World Cup, have turned expectations into what now feel like obligations ahead of Qatar in November.
Equally, he has a clear view of how his team should move forwards. He will not, he stressed, be swayed by experts on Twitter (even ones with England caps in their bios), the radio or from the bar of the Dog and Duck.
And maybe, just maybe, we should be thankful for that. Southgate may or may not turn out to be on the right path with this team but at least he justifies why he has chosen it.
'People are going to disagree with selection,' said Southgate. 'That noise over the last two or three years does seem extremely loud and I had to ride that through the Euros. I can see that's where it is again. That's what I have got to deal with.
