Merson: Southgate should continue to coach the team Maguire is England’s best in this World Cup.

December 14-Arsenal star Paul Merson talked about his views on England in a Sky Sports column today.
Here’s what’s in the column:
I want Southgate to stay on. I hear he’s had enough of the criticism, but there’s nothing worse than criticism. If I were Southgate, I would continue to coach. He is the head coach of England and his salary is good, and he can basically guarantee his team to qualify for Euro 2024 and win the title there. What else would he do? Lead a team at the bottom of the Premier League to keep moving up? By contrast, he works with England’s most talented players every few months to see how good they are.
As England manager, Southgate often appears in the auditorium of the Super League dialogue. If he coached the club, he would be there, too. He needs to think about what he’s going to do next, because nothing can be done once and for all. Why did you leave? Because someone said you had to leave? No manager is going to criticize Southgate. I’ve only heard people who have never coached the team criticize Southgate. You will be a little different when you are a coach. I sometimes don’t know what people are looking at. Southgate’s job is fantastic, his team is very talented, every game is a strong competitor, we are no longer losers, thanks to him. He doesn’t need to leave now.
In the game, no team can be unassailable for 90 minutes, which is impossible to get. But England’s performance has stagnated, you can do that against a relatively mediocre team, but not when you meet a top team. There were troughs in England, but they lasted too long and very often. We didn’t perform well enough in the 30 minutes against France and gave them a chance to score a goal. We can’t do this in the face of such an opponent.
I don’t know which goalkeeper can’t save the first goal of the French team. I don’t know why Pickford was on the goal line. The ball was 25-30 yards away and he was still on the goal line. If he had been in the six-yard zone, he might have saved Joan Armeni’s shot. For England, this World Cup has experienced ups and downs. We scored three goals in five games and scored more goals than any other team without playing particularly well. This is the strength of these English players.
Losing to France was an unacceptable result. Since I retired, I seldom feel guilty in the game, but I feel guilty. I am 54 years old and I think I will never see England win the World Cup in my lifetime, but I think this year will be a good opportunity. The problem lies in the details. In my craziest dreams, I wouldn’t even think of Kane flying a penalty, not even in my craziest dreams. It’s fair if he gets pounced, but he will never hit the ball high. If I could pick any player to take a penalty, I would pick Kane.
I said after the group stage that if England were to win the World Cup, Kane would have to score three or four goals. Like the clock, Kane started scoring in the knockout stage, and if that penalty was scored, he could continue to win the Golden Boot. That’s why Kane is so good that he can be the top scorer in the World Cup even if he doesn’t score a goal in the group stage. He is unbelievable. If I had to pick someone to take a penalty tomorrow morning, even if I missed the penalty against France, I would choose Kane.
There were a lot of players who did well during the World Cup, from Bellingham to Saka. People may disagree with me, but I think Maguire was the best English player during the World Cup. He didn’t get a lot of chances at the club and he was under a lot of pressure before the World Cup, but he played very well. There is so much pressure on his shoulders that I don’t even remember when he let the England national team down. People may point to Giroux’s winning goal, but Grizman’s pass is so fantastic that no one in the world can stop it from happening.
(Justin)