The truth about Gareth Southgate and England tournaments | OneFootball

I want to talk about Gareth Southgate and England, but first of all, I need to begin with Steve Bruce and Newcastle United.

Don’t worry, it will all make sense in the end.

Hopefully.

So a bit of a history lesson first.

Then leading into the truth about Gareth Southgate and England tournaments.

As I recall it, the media especially, plus a number of Newcastle United fans as well, were of the impression that Steve Bruce actually did well in the cups when at St James’ Park, reaching two quarter-finals.

Steve Bruce in cup competitions when at Newcastle United

2019/20 FA Cup

Rochdale 1 Newcastle 1 – League One

Newcastle 4 Rochdale 1 – League One

Newcastle 0 Oxford 0 – League One

Oxford 2 Newcastle 3 – League One

West Brom 2 Newcastle 3 – Championship

Newcastle 0 Man City 2 – PREMIER LEAGUE

2019/20 League Cup

Newcastle 1 Leicester 1 (NUFC lost 4-2 on penalties ) – PREMIER LEAGUE

2020/21 FA Cup

Arsenal 2 Newcastle 0 – PREMIER LEAGUE

2020/21 League Cup

Newcastle 1 Blackburn 0 – Championship

Morecambe 0 Newcastle 7 – League One

Newport 1 Newcastle 1 (Newcastle won 5-4 on penalties) – League Two

Brentford 1 Newcastle 0 – PREMIER LEAGUE

2021/22 League Cup

Newcastle 0 Burnley 0 (Lost 4-3 on penalties) – PREMIER LEAGUE

Steve Bruce and Newcastle United in the cups – Conclusions

The entire Steve Bruce NUFC cup record was:

Played 13 Won 6 Drawn 2 Lost 5

It is interesting how you have two different scenarios and descriptions of what happened with Newcastle United in the cups, which are both true.

Firstly, Steve Bruce won six cup matches in his two full seasons at Newcastle United, getting to the quarter-final stage of both the FA Cup and League Cup.

Secondly, Steve Bruce was just as hopeless in the cups as he was overall at NUFC.

To justify that second statement, scraping the surface, you can see Steve Bruce lost five out of five cup matches against Premier League opposition, whilst it was two wins out of two against Championship sides, three wins and two draws against League One clubs, one win in the single game against League Two opposition.

The thing is, even that rundown doesn’t do it proper justice.

The truth is that in five cup matches against Premier League teams, Bruce’s NUFC only scored one goal, plus three of the five games were at home.

Whilst getting away from basic stats, the actual cup games that were won, invariably came despite rubbish performances and carried massive typical Steve Bruce luck. The 1-0 at home to Blackburn, Newcastle were completely outplayed and scored with their only shot on target. Replays were needed against League One sides Rochdale and Oxford, that Oxford win only coming in extra time and that was after a goalless draw at St James’ Park.

The win against League Two Newport was embarrassing, they took an early lead and dominated, NUFC fluking a late equaliser late on from Shelvey, then crawling through on penalties.

As you can see, this was a tale of Steve Bruce getting massive luck with the draws time after time, against weaker lower ranked sides, carrying (needing!!) massive luck, then as soon as playing anybody remotely decent, losing.

Which brings me to Gareth Southgate and England.

Gareth Southgate record with England at major finals:

2018 World Cup finals

England 2 Tunisia 1

England 6 Panama 1

England 0 Belgium 1

England 1 Colombia 1 (England won 4-3 on penalties)

England 2 Sweden 0

England 1 Croatia 2

England 0 Belgium 1

2020 (held 2021) European Championships finals

England 1 Croatia 0

England 0 Scotland 0

England 1 Czech Republic 0

England 2 Germany 0

England 4 Ukraine 0

England 2 Denmark 1

England 1 Italy 1 (England lost 3-2 on penalties)

2022 World Cup finals

England 6 Iran 2

England 0 USA 0

England 3 Wales 0

England 3 Senegal 0

France 2 England 1

2024 European Championships finals

England 1 Serbia 0

England 1 Denmark 1

England 0 Slovenia 0

Ahead of the Slovenia last 16 knockout match this afternoon, Gareth Southgate with this record so far at major finals:

Played 22 Won 13 Drawn 4 Lost 5

I wouldn’t say Gareth Southgate is quite Steve Bruce level BUT there are very clear parallels.

Southgate has had ridiculous luck with draws for the groups (including in qualifying as well as at finals) AND with how the schedule works out in knockout rounds.

England and Gareth Southgate at major finals from 2018 onwards, have repeatedly faced the international equivalent of Championship, League Two, and League One sides, yet so often struggling against them and invariably needing luck.

As soon as playing anybody half decent, it has been defeated – France, Italy, Croatia, and twice to Belgium. To be honest, as well, I think out of even those games, I would only say France were a top-class opponent that England shouldn’t have been expected to beat.

Germany is the name team that Gareth Southgate HAS managed to defeat in major finals BUT as we all know, in reality, the German national side had hit relative rock bottom at that point and was set to start a very necessary rebuild. Winning against them was indeed expected at the time, as everybody recognised it was a poor German side.

Wins against the likes of Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, and so on, are all kind of like facing a lowly Premier League club at the very best.

The results above have coincided with a time when it is generally accepted that England has some real quality players.

This current England squad out in Germany has many players who just this past season were top stars for the likes of Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich, and Arsenal.

Yet Gareth Southgate’s outrageous and clueless ultra-negative team selections and tactics, have managed to turn a collection of high-quality individuals into a team of…

I will let you dream up the word you think is most fitting.

With the players at his disposal, Gareth Southgate should be sending out an England side to blow Slovakia away today.

They should be pressing them from the first whistle, imposing their superior individual talent, getting right on top of them, and creating chance after chance.

Anything less than that is failure for me.

Even crawling through by the odd goal after another poor negative performance, is embarrassing for me.

Such a waste of what Gareth Southgate has available.

Imagine if say Newcastle United were going to play a team that had Bellingham, Foden, Saka, Gordon, Kane, Palmer, Stones, Rice, and so on in their ranks, you would think this is going to be one long 90+ minutes.

However, then compare that to the reality of what the likes of Denmark and Slovenia faced???

Clueless limiting ultra-defensive tactics and a totally unbalanced England side.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Though I fear it will be whilst Gareth Southgate remains.

I really hope he proves me wrong but in reality, even if England gets through today against a very limited Slovakia team, you just know it will be luck and/or individual moments of quality that will be responsible.