[Football] What is the MINIMUM expectation for England / Southgate at the EUROS?

[Eeyore]

If England win the group they have a very difficult 2nd round tie ahead of them. I certainly wouldn't sack a manager who lost a close match to any of the three they might come up against. It would be nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to do that.

But this is England, so we expect things to be unreasonable.

My view is that Southgate should just be left with the job long term. Half the battle in these tournaments is getting the players to play for you. And he seems to do that. Look at the history of these tournaments, often won by very average managers.

The problem is that Southgate is judged by millions of folk who think they know better but don't.

The problem isn't Southgate if we go out, it's that I think there are better teams in the competition and England are again being weighed by expectations beyond their station.

That said, the Euros throws up odd outcomes. 13 different finalists over the years. England are due. But as has been said, I fear they will be less fresh than others.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Anything less than winning it is totally unacceptable. Unacceptable = Southgate goes. That’ll do for me.

 

[zefarelly]

Dont know, dont care, not watching. Save myself from the bitter and utter disapointment that goes along with any kind of excitement or interest in England as they bow out once again in complete and abject failure and disaster.

Unless waistcoat man actually picks BW for the final 26.

I was going to reply to Harts Shirt in detail, but your post does it

I have a bathroom to rebuild, a Lambretta engine to build, a Race engine and gearbox to build for my Cortina and after a season of BHA I can do without more disappointment and failure. I really couldn't give a shit and have no vested interest.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Think second place in the group behind Croatia is the most likely outcome, so most likely going to meet Poland or Sweden.

The above is quite likely. It would be fun if Moder sinks us again. I have Little enthusiasm for this tournament. I don’t believe it should go ahead in a pandemic- or the Olympics either.

 

[Randy McNob]

QF / Semis.

Don't understand the criticism Southgate gets, got to a WC semi, Nations League final, beat the world No.1 team. infinitely better than most of his predecessors

 

[Westdene Seagull]

A 20 man brawl with 7 red cards .... yep, that'll do me ( obviously against Scotland ).

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Euros - semis
World Cup - quarters

That’s about where we should be. Top 8 in the world, top 4 in Europe. No better, no worse.

Really? I don't think there's much difference between the difficulty of the competitions.
You're more likely to hit a quality team in the round of 16 in the Euros than you are in the WC. IMO.

I think our round of 16 is likely to be one of Spain/Portugal/France or Germany.


Edit: Sweden/Portugal/France or Germany. - Assumed we would play the winners of Group E if second.

 

[Icy Gull]

I have as much faith in Southgate as some of you had in Potter, so winning our group will be an achievement for me, anything else will be a bonus

 

[Baker lite]

I’d like another Semi..

 

[Official Old Man]

We cruise through the first phase and come up against Germany at Wembley in the round of 16. Lose on pens as ever.

 

[Seasidesage]

Semi, most the tournament is played on home soil, we have arguably the best striking options in the world right now and waistcoat boy could have chosen to select a better defence than he has so anything less than that has to be viewed as a failure IMO.

I expect us to get to QF/SF in reality and be beaten by the 1st tactically astute manager we come up against. Creepy's finest will survive as the suits at the FA love him.

 

[blue-shifted]

The minimum requirement ... we give a good account of ourselves.

As others have said, we may come up against France or Portugal early in the tournament. These are equally matches teams to us and we can't demand we should be beating them. If we play well, but come up just short in the second round, fair enough.

If we don't make it into the top 2 in the group, play poorly, or are never in the game against the first big team we play, we will have underperformed

 

[zefarelly]

If we make it to the first game without a piss up/brawl/arrests in pub/club/hotel by any member of the squad I'd say it was a success.

No one deserves to see waist coat gimp on TV reeling out implausible excuses.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

We'll get inappropriately excited and eventually fail at the QF stage

 

[Bob!]

Beat Scotland.

ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch.

Don't lose to Scotland.

 

[Frankie]

Mings will break the all time record for booting the ball into touch , and knocked out in the last 16 probably .

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Not sure you can have a minimum or maximum expectation. An expectation is an expectation. I expect us to be knocked out before the final.

I hope we win it, obviously (I'm not Scottish).

My minimum requirement (any achievement below which would prompt me to call for the manager's head) is to play sufficiently well to not be knocked out by the international football equivalent of Burnley, Palace or Southampton.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Semi's should be the target and I think that should be viewed positively.

At the moment I think we're still behind Portugal, France and Belgium so unlikely to get to the final unless we get a lucky run and I don't think we're quite good enough to win it.

I do think we're in a very good position to be able to win one of the following tournaments though with the exciting young talent we have coming through. Our squad is very young and should only get better, plus hopefully we'll have a stronger manager next time around, whereas the three above are peaking now.

 

[blue-shifted]

Semi's should be the target and I think that should be viewed positively.

At the moment I think we're still behind Portugal, France and Belgium so unlikely to get to the final unless we get a lucky run and I don't think we're quite good enough to win it.

I do think we're in a very good position to be able to win one of the following tournaments though with the exciting young talent we have coming through. Our squad is very young and should only get better, plus hopefully we'll have a stronger manager next time around, whereas the three above are peaking now.

I'm not sure we're behind them, but we can't say we're ahead of them (i'd add Spain as well). Which means I don't think we can really say what a minimum requirement is, as once we get to the second round probably every game will be about 50/50 chance of going through.

Not play so badly as to be bringing the whole tournament down (which we've done in at least half of the tournaments i've seen us in) is the minimum to me.

 

[zefarelly]

Beat Scotland.

ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch.

Don't lose to Scotland.

my moneys on 1-1