IN the eyes of some supporters, Gareth Southgate will never be an acceptable England manager. Too nice, too uninspiring, too tainted by his penalty miss at Euro 96 and relegation with Middlesbrough during his only managerial role in club football. If you didn’t want Southgate to succeed Sam Allardyce in the first place, you’re probably no more enamoured with him now.

Yet in his 14 months in charge of the senior England team, Southgate has probably done more to positively transform the prospects of those under his control than his three or four immediate predecessors combined.

Of course, his reign will ultimately be judged on what happens in Russia next summer. That is always the way of things when it comes to assessing the success or failure of the England boss. But ahead of the inevitable fall-out that will follow next year’s World Cup, whether positive or negative, it is worth taking stock of what Southgate has already achieved in the last year or so. In my opinion, he deserves a lot more credit than he has received.

For a start, he reached the minimum requirement of his role by guiding England to top spot in their qualifying group and a place at next summer’s finals. Of course, it can be argued that qualifying for a tournament is nothing to write home about, and it is undeniable that Southgate benefited from England’s place in arguably the weakest of all the European pools. Slovakia, who finished as runners-up, were the only European side not to even make the play-offs because their points total was so poor.

Yet for all that they were in stronger groups, Italy and Holland still prove it is dangerous to take anything for granted. Wales, supposedly the coming force in the international game, will not be in Russia either, along with the rest of the home nations. Outside Europe, Chile, Ivory Coast and the United States have all missed out. Think back to the embarrassments suffered under Steve McClaren and Graham Taylor, and it is surely naïve to assume that England are good enough to regard qualification for any tournament as a given.

Southgate guided his side to Russia, but it is the manner in which he combined the demands of the qualifying campaign with the need to enact a generational shift in the squad that was most impressive.

‘Play the kids’ has been the common refrain accompanying England’s regular struggles on the major stage, but while previous managers have paid lip service to the need to create a pathway from the Under-21s to the senior team, extolling the importance of giving youth a chance only to stick with the same old faces when the big games rolled around, Southgate has been genuinely transformational.

He made his intentions clear when he ushered Wayne Rooney towards the international exit door in the early stages of his reign, and has subsequently cast the likes of Theo Walcott, Phil Jagielka, Michael Carrick and James Milner into international exile.

In their place has arrived a crop of talented youngsters who worked with Southgate during his time in charge of the Under-21s. Jordan Pickford, Joe Gomez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham and Dominic Solanke were all involved in the recent double-header with Germany and Brazil, while John Stones and Marcus Rashford have become key performers under the current regime.

There is, of course, a caveat, namely that Southgate is still to name his 23-man squad for Russia. When push comes to shove, perhaps he will offer one last chance to the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabian Delph, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge. On all available evidence, though, it looks unlikely.

If nothing else, Southgate has proved it is possible to pluck players from the Under-21s and put them straight onto the international stage, even though they might be playing for Crystal Palace instead of Chelsea. Unlike so many of his predecessors, he has not been in thrall to the big teams, and at a time when England’s junior sides are achieving an unprecedented level of success, he has helped provide a glimpse of a potentially bright future. The irony, with the next World Cup just seven months away, is it could be his successor, or even the manager after that, who feels the full benefit of his work.

It is not just with personnel that Southgate has been prepared to think beyond the tried-and-tested. One of the common criticisms of previous England teams is that they have been too formulaic, and that their tactical inflexibility has been a major weakness when posited against the greater adaptability of other nations.

Southgate watched his side in qualifying and was rightly concerned at a lack of creative options when playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation. His solution was to play with two up front, with a floating attacking midfielder in a ‘number ten’ role behind them, but he quickly realised his defence would be vulnerable in such a set-up.

As a result, he has moved to a formation with three central defenders and wing-backs, and looks set to stick with the system in next summer’s finals. It is dangerous to read too much into friendlies, but on the evidence of England’s last two outings, it should at least ensure his side are not ripped apart at the first sign of a counter-attack in Russia.


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THE pots for next month’s World Cup draw have been confirmed, and as expected, England are second seeds. An argument has been raging about countries ‘playing the system’ to improve their FIFA rankings by avoiding difficult friendlies, but it is probably only Poland who can count themselves lucky to have been selected as top seeds.

Spain’s presence in the second group of seeds makes them the team the top seeds will be desperate to avoid, with Denmark and Iceland looking like potentially dangerous options in the third tier. Serbia and Nigeria look by far the strongest nations amongst the fourth seeds.

The draw takes place on the afternoon on December 1, and Europe is the only continent that could see two of its nations combined in the same group.

The best case scenario for England? For all that Russia are poor, they will benefit from home advantage and the wounds of Marseille remain raw, so it would probably be best to avoid them. As a result, I’d say the dream draw would be Poland, Iran and Panama.

England’s Group of Death? How about Brazil, Denmark and Nigeria. That would make qualification for the knockout stage a decent achievement.