Ian

I thought Ramsey had gone back to villa for treatment as his injury is long term?

Awful to see journalists trying to ask probing questions rather than just giving those in charge an easy ride.

Does seem odd then. I very rarely have time to read the Athletic articles so apologies for the ignorance. Perhaps a case of the players throwing Smith under the bus when the crowd turned. Would be interesting to see how this approach contrasted with Farke; I understand all coaches will have their own methodology but it does bring into question the DoF when his role is surely to provide more continuity in methodology.

Whatever the specifics, it should have been clear after a few months it wasn't going to work with the personnel in question. The fact this approach was given so much time seems fairly damning of the leadership above Smith.

Perhaps I have misunderstood the intention, but I don't really understand how this would be implemented successfully unless you somehow have a squad of players who are entirely on the same wavelength at all times. Surely the most likely outcome would result in a team of individuals devoid of any real game plan.

Not replacing Buendia adequately (not that this is easy) put pay to both Farke and Smith. We were always pretty awful even under DF when Buendia wasn't available - recruitment seems to have been very poor in general since Scott left. Webber doesn't have a lot to work with, but there has been a distinct lack of leadership from the top given we were told the whole point of the DoF model is to ensure continuity between coaches and managers. I very much hope he comes out and talks to the press about what went wrong this time.

Sad it has come to this, but IMO he was not the real problem at the club. Time will tell.

Level of commitment? Ego (High Performance podcast and all that)? Lack of experience to improve things when they aren't going right? Who knows. What I do know is that the last 18 months have been some of the most depressing as a Norwich fan, when they should have been a great opportunity to build a positive future. As a long-term season ticket holder I can't remember feeling this detached from the club and unmotivated to even watch, even when we were properly rubbish and relegated to League One. Can't place that at the door of Dean Smith, he was doomed to failure like Ferguson at Man U or many other similar stories of decent managers failing due to expectations and lack of leadership from the very top of the club.

Let's be honest, alarm bells were already ringing with Webber's comments on the recruitment process. Smith was always set up to be the fall guy, and yet again silence from Webber when things aren't going well.

How long can this go on? We looked utterly clueless again.

My issue with Southgate is his seeming lack of ability to change things up and get a result, and over reliance on players who he "trusts" (AKA some England journeymen who know their squad place is likely). That's it. I would rather see someone who has experience at a high level who could make the difference in these tight situations.

Maybe. But it has to be part of a general pattern of improvement so the jury is out. We were extremely lucky Swansea were atrocious in front of goal today. They had many more chances than we mustered.

Again though - relative to other top squads. Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy all light years away from their best squads Of course we have weaknesses, but I really think we closer are up there (on paper) with the very best than we have ever been before and have a small window to actually beat some good teams.

Is this a trick question?!

Had the performance today been an aberration, I am sure we would be praising the teams' resilience after a long lay off. However, the match today was an absolute carbon copy of every other game we have seen this season - small flashes of good football, but prolonged periods of dull and predictable play with the result seemingly hinging on whether the opposition take their chances or not as opposed to us dominating and controlling matches.

Lambert or Lambert + Cully + Karsa?

Not being funny, but you are talking about lacking top quality defenders, and then in the next paragraph talking about matching France. I genuinely think they were amongst the worst teams defensively I have seen at this tournament and we didn't exploit it despite apparently having an unbalanced attacking squad. I have never seen an international quality team make so many challenges from the wrong side as they did tonight.

Good point, I assume times have changed since we took Gazza. You kind of make my point, if we are tactically good enough from a coaching perspective we should be able to mix the formation up to suit the opponents. Let me turn it around then as I am sure it's easy to pick individual defences. What precisely has Gareth Southgate achieved in his managerial career to warrant the most prestigious job in domestic English football?

We'll have to agree to disagree then. I think this is the weakest the "top" international teams like Brazil, Germany, Spain and so on have been for a long time and I am not sure we will have a better opportunity of winning international trophies. I am sure our squad has weaknesses, but not much point in having excellent attacking players if you don't bother utilising them.

We can argue **** for tat as long as you would like, but the simple fact is we lose when we come up against decent teams. I don't think Southgate is a disaster, but it's the same old at England level - he trusts in the young players who come through the England youth system and that's it, has always been the same. For my entire life I have heard about how important it is to build a squad for the future - that was two generations ago and we still predictably lose with a hard luck story whilst leaving top in-form players out of the squad (Toney) or out of the lineup (Maddison).

You missed my point though - relative to other teams I think the 2022 squad is well up there. We looked great in 2006, but then take a glance at the Brazil squad. Also would argue we didn't have players like Maddison, Grealish etc to come off the bench.

Do you honestly believe any other manager has had as much talent across the entire squad as Southgate has relative to other international teams? We've always had the odd top player, but never the squad depth. The problem is Southgate is IMO too safe to offer these players the opportunity to make a difference. Should Maguire (who I think was actually alright) have been starting on merit? Should Mount have been preferred to Maddison, who was in scintillating form? He obviously relies on the loyalty of players, which is fine, but have never felt he has the nouse to make the big decisions required to win a tournament.

Did they have anywhere near the level of talent over the pitch that Southgate has? I am not convinced. I am sure Morocco and Croatia have far better CBs than Gareth has available right? Genuinely couldn't care less if the England camp is happy and contented if they aren't winning games. Has to be secondary - and if any player isn't desperate to go out and represent their country we have bigger problems.

Don't think Southgate is tactically good enough to win a tournament. France were appalling defensively, obvious to target their RB yet we don't end up scoring a goal from open play. Maddison taken and zero minutes, Grealish brought on on the 97th minute, and all sadly predictable as per the Euro finals. France did not play well and ended up winning the match - shouldn't be happening in that way with the squad we have.

Crap, just realised you already posted a workaround, my bad