Southgate’s Style Of Play Took England Far – Gary Neville

England legend, Gary Neville has come out to back Gareth Southgate amid criticisms. He recently insisted that the coach deserves praise because he proved many wrong.

According to him, Southgate and his players navigated their way to this final in the only way they could, and it definitely worked to an extent.

He added that Southgate has surely proven most people wrong since he took charge and he deserves credit for that.

His words, “I saw after the game people saying Southgate should have made more substitutions, these players should have taken the penalties; these are the same people who have been saying that he should have played a different system against Germany, that he should not have played Kieran Trippier against Croatia, that he should have played a more attacking system.”

“I genuinely believe that Southgate and his players navigated their way to this final in the only way they could and that was to be a little more pragmatic – put the two holding midfield players in front of defence; if it needed to be a back five, it was because of the shape or quality of the other team.”

“He found a way to get to the final. Sometimes we all like to be purists at times and want him to find a way to play all those attacking players but I don’t think England would have got to the final if they had gone punch to punch with some of the nations they came across along the way.”

“I think Gareth knew he had to play a certain way to get to the final and he did that. At the end, it comes down to small margins, details like penalties. This is not the time to be criticising tactics and substitutions.”

“The reality is that Southgate has proved so many of us wrong – not just in this tournament but over the last two years – about decisions he has made – it would be a nonsense now to start suggesting we are right about substitutions and penalty takers when most of us have not seen this in our lifetimes.”