#I didn't know shit about women's football before this tournament and I admit it

[dom-arktos]

Me tomorrow morning, to my dismay:

[tenthdocter]

With respect to the POV that a ‘more established manager would get it done’ with the men’s team - I totally get it but this really depends entirely on who said established manager is. Everyone was throwing Tuchel’s name out there because he’s good at tournament football, but ignoring that he’s fallen out with every single club he’s ever worked at within 2 years among allegations of toxicity, which is exactly what England men don’t need. The Sun and the Mail is toxicity enough to be dealing with. I’d happily take Eddie Howe, but he’s not leaving Newcastle right now. Graham Potter isn’t an upgrade, his sides can’t consistently score which is a huge negative in a knockout tournament. So you’re left with…who?

Also…winning major tournaments requires more luck than I think people like to admit. England women are amazing but have also got lucky with opponents missing sitters - Australia should’ve got to 2-2 in the minutes before Russo’s goal, and it wasn’t England’s brilliance that prevented that happening. Nigeria hit the bar twice against them. Argentina men almost threw away three knockout matches in Qatar after being 2-0 up in all three. England men were the better team in the QF against France by every statistical measure and lost because their all time top scorer choked out of nowhere (sorry Harry, love you). Sure I’d love to win something. But all you can do is a be a team good enough to be consistently getting to the latter stages and eventually one will fall your way. Pep Guardiola, the most established manager there is, took SEVEN attempts to win the Champions League with that City super team despite being the favourites every year, because things kept refusing to fall their way. And when they finally did win, it was in a scrappy match where they actually created less than their opponents.

Okay yeah I agree that tournament football definitely needs some luck! But it also takes skill and tactical know how too. And if we're talking about the france game I do have to criticise the players too tbf. Like yes we were the better team but we also didn't create many chances and did fuck all for most of the match. Loads of people blame Harry for losing but the whole team was shit if you ask me. All we got was 2 pens so not good enough really. But on the subject of Gareth what I'm getting from this is you're kinda saying he's the best option we have atm. Which I guess you are kind of right about. I just personally think he's had 3 chances at major tournaments and now perhaps it's time to move on and try someone else? 💁🏽‍♂️