Gareth Southgate’s Tactical Acumen Can Lead to Unlikely England Success

For the second time in as many months, England head into a World Cup qualifying fixture with a new manager at the helm. The Football Association is going to take its time over appointing a successor to Sam Allardyce, spending a portion of this season talking to experts and combing them for advice; in the meantime, Gareth Southgate will step up from under-21 duty to lead his nation.

He’s a rather divisive choice.

Aside from a Euro 96 penalty miss (yes, it still burns) and a truly terrible Pizza Hut commercial, his career has stayed firmly away from the limelight, and yet still he is not a truly popular selection.

Much of his work with the Three Lions’ youngsters has gone unnoticed or unsung, and the one time people did tune in to watch his work en masse—the 2015 Under-21 European Championships—his team bowed out in disappointing fashion.

It’s sad to say, but a number of pre-determined opinions of him were cemented in that month; the phrase “confirmation bias” has rarely been more fitting.

But scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find a manager who is ready to grapple with this challenge, and he has far more qualities than immediately meet the eye. That’s not to say he’s the dream appointment for the senior side, but Southgate does have several traits that could serve the nation well.

In the buildup to the Under-21 European Championships in 2015, Southgate won nine of 10 games and drew the other one. In fact, he has never lost a competitive qualifying game while in charge of the team.

The side’s performance at the finals was disappointing, finishing bottom of Group B, but they were lumped with eventual finalists Sweden and Portugal and an Italy side with a star in Domenico Berardi.

The displays were averages, but there are some caveats Southgate can justifiably point to: an exhausted Harry Kane led the line, and injury robbed the side of two cornerstone players in qualifying—wide forward Saido Berahino, who top-scored in qualifying with 10 goals, …

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