Gareth Southgate and England are front-page news across European sports dailies today, and no one is holding back.
The Three Lions have been absolutely savaged after stumbling into the knockout rounds at Euro 2024 with a win and two draws.
The reaction in England has been harsh enough, but it’s fair to say that for once it appears they’re not overreacting.
Joining in with the ridicule was Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Christoph Kramer, who is working for ZDF as a pundit.
The defensive midfielder won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, and gave his thoughts on why the coach is such a big problem.
“If I compare Southgate with Julian Nagelsmann…”, Kramer began. “Nagelsmann has a plan in his head.
“If it doesn’t work, he stands there and tries to change it. You can tell by his facial expressions, by his gestures. Southgate can’t possibly have a plan in his head.
“Normally, as a coach, you have a clear idea and if it doesn’t work, you freak out. You try to give your players something to take with them. He doesn’t do that at all. I find that so strange.
“He just lets this world-class team play. After the first half that we saw from England, we thought: Nothing is happening!
“He simply sends the eleven into the game. It doesn’t matter who plays. I feel sorry for some of them, they are sent there without instruction.
“You can have as many players as you want. If you are sent into a game like that, you have no chance.
“We have now seen three games like this and I cannot imagine that it will be any different in the fourth. No matter who they play against: in the next game they will be knocked out.”
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