not even that, it’s genuinely just fucking luck of the draw, look at the teams they faced in knockout, whenever they face a good team that can rival them they lose.
2018 - Croatia in the semi finals is the first good team they face, they lose
2020 they lose to Italy, they beat a shambolic Germany to get there. (oh and Brainiac Southgate subs on 2 players in the last minute to take pens)
2022 they lose to the first good team they play in France.
2024- They escape humiliation from Slovakia by the skin of their teeth and then terror their way through a bunch of okay but lesser nations, need penalties and a wonder goal against Switzerland and play one good half of football against Netherlands to get them to the final where they predictably lose to a team that can match them.
I don’t have any clue how you can look at England in the recent years and think, yeah the results are good enough keep southgate, playstyle, lack of tactics, shitty substitutions don’t matter.
oh and then ofc you have the problem of Undroppables, you have Lineker and Shearer on their podcast saying shit like, you can’t bench Kane, he is england’s top scorer, nevermind the fact that he is doing fuck all on the pitch and barely moving and is seen around his own box instead of playing as a striker, oh no can’t drop him, and then Genius micah comes in with the can’t drop Foden, not after the season he had with Man City? bitch who the fuck cares what he did for Man City? he has done fuck all for England in any match ever. But no you need to shove Bellingham, Kane and Foden onto the pitch even though it makes 0 sense and they keep tripping on each other, because they all like the left half space.
