In the past, ex-England managers have crumbled under pressure, particularly when it comes to major tournaments. Some of them have also been a little passive in terms of facing the media after being knocked out of either a World Cup or European Championship, but not Gareth Southgate.
A true and honest man who is willing to accept and rectify mistakes, but also some who isn't scared of making the odd harsh decisions such as waiting until extra time to bring on Jack Grealish. Rashford's penalty miss was unacceptable for a player of his caliber, but this will surely be a huge experience for the likes of 19-year old Bukayo Saka and 21-year old Jadon Sancho. The racist taunts from fans were totally out of order. After all, these players are humans, not robots. They are bound to make mistakes at this age, hopefully, they'll learn from it.
England's player of the tournament has to be Jordan Pickford. Raheem Sterling also had his best performance in an England shirt, but Pickford was the one for me who kept the Lions in the hunt. His performance in the last-16 stage against Germany was heroic, making two crucial saves to deny victory for the Germans at Wembley. Also, the fact that Southgate's men went through the entire tournament conceding just two goals, shows how solid the Stones and Maguire partnership was throughout the tournament.
As for the penalty decisions, letting a 19-year old take the fifth and vital penalty against the giant of a man in Gianluigi Donnarumma is a little risky as you don't know what he is feeling inside, especially the impact it may have on his career, should he miss. Somebody like Jack Grealish or Sterling may have been a slightly better choice.
When England had Italy on the rope in the first half, This is where they failed to drive home the advantage, partiçulary after scoring in only the second minute of the game. Had Southgate's men really pushed the Xcelerator and gone for that second goal, things may have been different in terms of the outcome of the match. But England slightly caved from that moment in and allowed the Italians a foothold in the game, just like they did in that World Cup semi-final against Croatia. Perhaps a bit of ruthlessness in the attacking third may have been the difference between lifting the trophy and collecting a Runners-up medal.
It was obvious that Mancini's side wanted to take it all the way to a shootout. Had England sussed that out, they should have looked to finish it in 90minutes or extra time, which is another reason why the decision to hold back Grealish until the extra time was somewhat bizarre as the Italians started to dominate in midfield and England were finding it hard to keep the ball. Grealish is someone who likes to dribble with the ball and break up play by winning fouls. and had he came on with half an hour of normal time to go, England could have gone and attempted for victory in normal time.
Looking ahead to Qatar 2022, it would be interesting to see what the squad would have learned from this experience. Depending on what happens in the next season and a half, it will most likely be the same squad with perhaps one or two new faces. Given that the tournament is almost halfway through the 2022-23 season, Southgate should still have a wide array of players to choose from. Can they go one step further and bring home the World Cup after 56 years?
Feature Image: From Flickr By Online muhabir from https://euro2020kupasi.com/
