The Eye Of Media

By Tim Parsons-

England manager Gareth Southgate should be sacked for his awful misjudgment that took England out of the world cup .

That’s the cold hard truth, no matter all the comforting words he has for his players, or the fact he has taken the blame for his choice of penalty takers.

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Saka, a 19 year old teenager, was was chosen to take a penalty ahead of more experienced players such as Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish because he of his performance during training sessions. It was a foolish decision because training sessions is not the same as playing before a large crowd and a global audience at home. Southgate should have known this- his judgement was very incompetent. Saka’s penalty was very amateur, confirming him a bad choice for such an important decision.

Also very irresponsible, was his decision to bring all three players at the very end of extra time, about a minute and half before full time, to take penalties. He kept them on the bench throughout the game, without allowing them to have any feel of the game. The sentiments expressed by much of the media that we should be content for getting to the first final of a tournament in 55 years is soft talk. The country knew that on last week Wednesday after England beat Denmark 2-1 to qualify for the final, Sunday’s game was meant to be a winner- but the manager simply blew it.

The players blew it too, their penalties were embarrassing. Rushford’s penalty was so poor, one can be forgiven for concluding his mental state was poor as a result of being sidelines for most of the match. It is not an excuse for the striker, who appeared to be showing off in the way he took the penalty .The young England player is a relatively experienced penalty taker for his club , and has converted 17/19 of his previous penalties into goals. But penalties taken at club level is not the same with the pressure at international level.

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Rushford is inexperienced in big games, and should not have taken a penalty in such an important game. Once he was chosen to take a penalty, the United player who is worth over £65 m should have put the ball in the net. The miss was bad.

The racial abuse the players faced for missing was disgusting, but Southgate’s poor decision making created the entire mess. Drastic steps to deal with racism in football beginning with football bans for those caught being racist is a step in the right direction, but the racial abuse is no substitute for the real mess up of Southgate, who really should step down.

Jadon Sancho misses penalty in Euro finals Image: John Poole/AP

The issue is whether a national manager is expected to know that it is unprofessional and reckless to bring on young players who have not been part of the game at all to take penalties at the end .

“I decided on the penalty-takers based on what they have done in training.

“Nobody is on their own. We have won together as a team and it is on all of us together to not be able to win this game.

“In terms of penalties, it is my call and it totally rests with me.” Well, it’s time to rest from the job then, Southgate, isn’t it?

Extra-time substitute Jack Grealish confirmed through a tweet that he wanted to take a penalty, but reckless Southgate picked Sako over him. Sako tweeted: “I said I wanted to take one! So why didn’t he take one?

Grealish has taken just one penalty in 264 appearances, which he scored, but the higher experience of the 25 year old in competitive matches addition to the fact he had been a part of the match for 35 mins, made him a preferable option than the young kids who had hardly touched the ball in a big game they would have like to have participated in.

England overall were quite relaxed with their lead , giving Italy all the ambition they needed to equalize and go for the win. Italy had 62 per cent possession and 755 passes compared with England’s 341 . Their level of accuracy was also 90% compared to 78 per cent, despite England having a technically superior team. Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini were able to control the ball and cover considerable ground with minimal opposition.

It was sad to watch England let the country down after hopes had as usual been raised so high. This time, there was good reason to be hopeful, but Gareth Southgate judgement was awfully poor, and the penalty takers, simply put, messed up. They should have done much better. Experienced players have throughout history missed penalties, but not all missed penalties are poor. The criticism has to be harsher when all three players who missed were not given a chance to get into the rhythm of the game before taking the penalties.

When young players out of a match completely in which they would have love to participate in, and bring them in at the end, they are set up to fail. A judgement this bad disqualifies Southgate from staying on as England manager, and is the reason he should offer his resignation with dignity and go. We know his status and influence will keep him there until the world cup next year- and don’t hold your breath for England to win that tournament. We already missed the best chance we had of winning a tournament.

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