When Gareth Southgate took over the England role in 2016, he inherited an average squad, with a lack of quality in midfield in particular.
Four years later and it’s a different story. With the talent and depth of the squad, Southgate is underachieving with the players he has at his disposal.
Clearly the role of an international manager differs to club managers. They don’t get anywhere near the amount of coaching time, which is worth bearing in mind.
In Southgate’s preferred 5-4-1 England haven’t found the balance between defence and attack. There are too many defensive minded players on the pitch. Southgate must be braver with selection and pick the talented attacking players available to him. He can afford to partner Jordan Henderson with a more attacking player if he is going to persist with a back 5, which looks likely.
England have so many options in attacking midfield and in the front three. It’s a shame we’re not playing a system to get more of them in the team. It feels as if were sacrificing an attacking player to accomodate another defender, because Southgate isnt conviced with his CB options.
If Pep Guardiola had the choice between his City squad and this England squad it would be a very close call, which shows the talent, depth and technical quality that we now have.
Bar the brilliance of De Bruyne and question marks regarding Pickford in goal, the squads are of similar quality.
England probably edge it with the options in the front 3, as Kanes form has been brilliant and Aguero has had injury struggles.
The full back options England possess is also an area where they are stronger and have great depth, espeically at right back.
In the last four years the emergence of technically gifted creative midfielders like Grealish, Foden, Mount and Maddison is something which we have been missing for a number of years.
The fact that there is even debate about whether Englands squad is as good as the City squad, which has taken hundreds of millions of pounds to assemble raises question marks regarding how much Southgate is getting out of the amazingly talented squad he has. Taking England to a world cup semi final is a decent achievement, and would of expected the team to kick on from that. The quality and depth of the squad has improved since that world cup semi final, but the performances havent. Southgate must be more positive and evolve with the team and the plethora of attacking talent at his disposal.