In his final press conference of 2021, Gareth Southgate said that he was finally looking forward to relaxing a little over Christmas, and offered a weary smile. You can see his point: England have played 19 matches over the last eight months and 17 of them were competitive games. This was the biggest year of Southgate’s professional life.
But can any England manager ever truly relax? There are four months until England’s next match, but there is a new contract to agree and sign, squad preparation to be done with constant assessment of current and potential members and scouting for World Cup preparations to finalise before the host country is even ready to deliver them. Southgate must also discuss England’s response to the human rights issues of a Qatari World Cup with his players. All the while, the pressure bubbles and builds as the countdown ticks on.
This England manager’s job was not famously labelled “impossible” because those lucky enough to hold it have no chance of succeeding, but because it can often feel like you spend half your time in crisis and the other half trying to avoid one. Even when you achieve beyond reasonable ambition or public expectation, the sands of that expectation merely shift again.
Southgate understands that better than anyone else alive today. On the only other occasions since the 1960s when England have reached a major tournament semi-final (1990 and 1996), the two managers – Bobby Robson and Terry Venables – knew that those tournaments would be their final acts in charge. Not only did that become a motivational tool, the “end of an era” principle, it also decreed that any expectations would become someone else’s inheritance.
Southgate’s greatest feat is not taking England into, and onwards from, a major tournament semi-final, but managing the deafening hype through one considered, mildly subdued press conference answer at a time. It helps that he is almost comically level-headed. You can imagine Southgate being told that his house had been blown away in a hurricane. He’d frown, sigh for a half-moment and then explain which of the four hotels in the local area that would best for a medium-term stay.
And that’s basically the game here. It does a disservice to Southgate and others to say that you do not need tactical wizardry to succeed in international football, but so much of these jobs are about getting high-class players to peak at the right time, managing the balance between inter-personal relationships and being able to carry the barrels of ball-ache that come with the job without letting the players see you strain.
Matches, tournaments, careers will change on split-second actions in the course of match or even a tactical tweak or well-timed substitution, but most of it comes down to the players believing you are the best person for your job because you’re the best person at letting them do theirs. Absorbing pressure like a sponge is a shortcut to that goal.
Southgate’s ability to do that will be tested again over the next 12 months. Linear progress – semi-final, final, ??? – is positively correlated to expectation which, in turn, is positively correlated to burden and strain. It’s eight years since then-FA chairman Greg Dyke said England should look to win the World Cup in 2022 and the omniscient internet never forgets. Southgate is the victim of his own success but he has also opened England’s Pandora’s Box. We had learned not to bother believing and now suddenly we can’t stop believing.
England’s preparation will not be easy. There is a relentless Premier League and Champions League schedule between August and November that follows a shortened summer break thanks to four Nations League fixtures and an early season start date. Southgate will have no pre-tournament friendly and must work out how to balance club form with familiarity given the lack of preparation time. England have also typically been poor when playing in extreme heat.
But none of these are excuses because, in the eye of public majority, excuses no longer exist. “If it goes wrong, you’re dead,” said Southgate after England beat Germany last summer. He may try to rise above the hysteria, but he is well aware of its eternal presence. This was the biggest year of Southgate’s professional life. Next year will be bigger.
Southgate targets elite opposition as England’s World Cup preparations form
England manager Gareth Southgate will look to give England as many matches against world-class opponents as possible in a bid to test the resolve of his squad ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.
England sailed through their qualification group, scoring 39 goals in ten games, but Southgate is clear that many of these matches may have little relevance when it comes to major tournament football.
There is another international break in March and then England play four matches next June in the Nations League. The draw for that tournament takes place next month, and will likely provide England with at least one perceived contender for the 2022 World Cup.
“We are going to take on high-level opposition, so we’re looking to try to get good quality opposition for March and the Nations League will provide that,” said Southgate after England’s 10-0 win against San Marino, their biggest margin of victory since 1964.
“It’s going to be a good test for us of a better defensive challenge and having to play out and create chances against good defences but we’ve had plenty of tough games through this calendar year with the whole European Championship. So it’s just building and improving in every aspect of our game basically.”
The unique timing of next year’s World Cup means that Southgate will only rendezvous with his squad six days before the tournament begins. Unless England are drawn into the later groups, that makes a pre-tournament friendly impossible.
“I would think it’s really unlikely that teams are going to be able to play a friendly,” Southgate admitted. “The Premier League teams playing on a Saturday or Sunday then you’d need three or four days before you’d play, and I think you normally have to be in the country five days ahead of a major tournament anyway.
“It’s going to be the teams that adapt best, and we’ve got some experience of that with the Nations League and the European Championship where we had so many players involved in the Champions League finals. So at least we have been through that experience.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3Dl4714
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