Gareth Southgate and England face ‘whole new level of expectation’ at World Cup

Because of the unique winter scheduling of this year’s Fifa World Cup, preparation for the tournament has not been easy for the head coaches of the 32 competing nations. Injury problems, general fatigue and late squad changes have all had to be dealt with when considering which players to take to Qatar.

For England head coach Gareth Southgate, the countdown to the World Cup has been further unsettled by his team’s poor run of form in 2022. In their eight matches played this year, England have only won twice – both friendlies in March – 2-1 against Switzerland and 3-0 against Ivory Coast.

Then in the Uefa Nations League, a run of six games without a win saw the Three Lions relegated from the top tier group. It’s “hardly the sort of form” that leaves you “itching to drop the needle on your old Lightning Seeds record”, said Joey Mills in The Sportsman.

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Abuse and scrutiny

Since being appointed as England boss in 2016, Southgate has enjoyed plenty of high points during his tenure – most notably reaching the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the final of the Euros last summer.

There have, however, also been low points. The 4-0 defeat by Hungary in June was the “worst performance” in his six years as England boss, said Phil McNulty on the BBC. A “main target” for a “mutinous Molineux”, Southgate has had “nights of deep disappointment” before, but none “laced with the level of vitriolic personal abuse and scrutiny” that followed the humiliation by Hungary.

In response to the crushing defeat in Wolverhampton, angry fans chanted “you don’t know what you’re doing” at Southgate during the match and after the final whistle. Many pundits also questioned whether he was still the right man to lead England at the 2022 World Cup.

The ‘making’ of Southgate

The bright boy who grew up in Crawley, West Sussex, didn’t seem destined for a football career, said Paul Byrne in The Mirror. His teachers thought his future lay in accountancy or journalism. Even when apprenticed at Crystal Palace, he was advised by his coach, Alan Smith, to become a travel agent. However Smith still made him first-team captain, and Southgate went on to enjoy a 57-cap international career.

The dominant memory many fans have of him as a footballer is the missed penalty against Germany that kept England out of the Euro 96 final – plus the Pizza Hut advert it inspired. Yet that failure was “the making” of Southgate, said Matthew Syed in The Times: it forged in him the resilience that he now inspires in others.

It was Southgate’s own “DNA” that defined England’s run to the Euro 2020 final, said Mark Critchley in the Independent. And in particular it is his unusual openness to new ideas – evident during his time as manager of Middlesbrough and during his subsequent stewardship of the England Under-21s – that has informed his long-term overhaul of England’s national set-up.

One thing that’s evident in the 52-year-old’s management style is how he puts his faith in England’s “tried and trusted” players, said Josh Noble in the FT. England’s 26-man squad for Qatar is “a mark of Southgate’s firm loyalty to a core group of players”, with 20 of them also featuring at the Euros.

Although results have been poor in the run-up to the tournament, Southgate insists that form is just one of many factors in tournament football. “We’ve got a lot of players who have been to tournaments, have performed at the level, know what’s required,” he said last week. “We’ve got others who are playing well, who are in form right at this moment. And we’ve got to balance all that when we’re picking our team.”

Warm glow of nostalgia

Drawn in group B with Iran, the United States and Wales, England are fancied to advance to the knockout stage “with minimal fuss”, said The Mirror. However, all four nations have “encountered problems” and “stumbled” into Qatar, Sports Illustrated added. It has given “another layer” to an already “deep and intriguing” group.

After semi-final and final appearances in the last two major tournaments, Southgate will know he is “under pressure to deliver”, but he has become adept at “controlling the noise”, said Jason Burt in The Telegraph. Southgate admits he will be judged by how England fare in Qatar and they face a “whole new level of expectation”. Are England favourites for the World Cup? “No.” Can they win it? “Absolutely.”

Whatever happens in Qatar, Southgate’s legacy “may only be appreciated when he’s no longer England manager”, said Mills in The Sportsman. That “warm glow of nostalgia” often associated with former eras and managers, will “eventually bestow Southgate such praise”. Some time in the future we’ll “look back and remember semi finals, finals, Atomic Kitten and hope”. Southgate’s day “in the sun” is coming.

The Three Lions begin their group B campaign against Iran on Monday 21 November (1pm, live on BBC).