Gary Neville reacts to England's win against Slovakia | "We've been woeful now for four games"

Oceangate are better at subs than Southgate

england have averaged 3 shots on target so far in this tournament against serbia, denmark, slovenia and slovakia. never thought i’d say this but switzerland should be considered the favourites to go through to the semis.

We've stumbled our way through, i can't remember the last time England had a comfortable game

Reporters having to attack the players with their questions because no one is allowed to ask Southgate anything remotely probing or challenging without being uninvited from pressers then leads to moments like Bellingham caring more about critics than football. Why is no journalist asking about the lack of balance down the left, the inability to create clear chances with Foden, Kane and Bellingham dropping into the same space, not using any pacy wingers when we need to stretch teams, starting the same 10 players every game despite it clearly not working? ITV, BBC, Sky Sports analysts are all being critical, yet no one wants to directly ask Southgate these questions.

If Southgate can’t figure out to start or even sub on Gordon to play against a 37 year old right back, we have absolutely no chance. The only way we can reach the final is if we sack Southgate asap.

My nerves were shredded last night. It was awful to watch. Changes need to be made but SG will do nothing.

Have we completely forgotten that Joe Gomez played left back for Liverpool for a majority of the season.

The maddest thing is the gaslighting by Southgate and his players trying to claim they are playing well and have “control” of the game! Add to that Southgate arrogantly refusing to make the changes everyone can see are needed and the players whining about any criticism they receive. But yeah everyone should just be happy they scraped through with a vastly more talented squad than most other teams 🥱

We can't even play out from the back against Slovakia, 80% of our passes were in our own half, we gave the ball away, had no ideas going forward, left naturally wide attacking players (which we were crying out for) on the bench. It's too late to change all these problems especially with Southgate making the decisions. Zero chance of playing a decent game let alone getting through the next round. The worst thing is that Southgate is oblivious to what is going on.

The pundits are practically apologising now for the criticism in the early games. Its ridiculous that the players have had a go back when the criticism is not personal and based on performance only. Do the players expect the media to push a narrative that performance levels have been good enough after what we have seen

For the very first time ever (in 34 + years of supporting England - Italia 90 was my first tournament), I would say that even if England somehow won the tournament, playing like this and fluking it here and there, I just wouldn’t care that much. I’m not looking for perfect performances, just bloody something that I can be proud of.

People are forgetting how close England were to going 2-0. down…

Neville, of all pundits, is the closest to outlining Southgate's mindset/overriding tactics but none have clearly indentified it... so here it is. Southgate has instructed his defenders and DMs to avoid ‘risky’ passes in the centre of the pitch to avoid giving away possession in dangerous areas. That's it. And this is why we don’t flow through the lines. This is why our defenders and DM players aren't playing balls forward or even sideways to other players in tight spaces which is how you create flowing moves and gain advantages and move up the pitch. So instead players feel they must choose the safe pass which of course means our flow is sideways and backwards (and at best up the wings) and often it ends with a defender or the keeper finally lumping it upfield because there are no more safe passes to be made. So that is the passing/ ball retention mindset Southgate has drilled into the players and especially the 2 DMs and the defenders and goalkeeper. That is why TAA will never play at RB under Southgate in any meaningful game. His passes are too high risk. That is why Mainoo and Rice weren't trusted to receive balls in tight areas in the middle of the pitch versus Slovakia And given the lack of a left footed left back that's why the ball goes up that flank only to return to the CBs each and every time. That's Southgate ball - will he change v Switzerland? No The only hope is that he plays Gordon so we have a real outlet for getting down that flank into dangerous areas. Will he play Gordon? probably not. So the idea will be that we won't gift Switzerland an easy goal - they will have to earn it. And because we have world class attacking talent the laws of probability suggest we will always score at least 1 goal in a game. So that's it and that's how it's gonna be in every game

Its so obvious to see where the issues are, yet the highest paid international manager can't see it. I am sure he a great guy, but his management has been very poor. The players are trying, but are shackled by bad team selection and no obvious game plan. We are going to go out with a bang when we play a decent team, and the Swiss are a decent team.

Bellinghams goal was magic and he deserves credit for it, but we are missing the point that if the number 10 role was being played well for the 90 minutes we wouldnt need saving with 30 seconds to go would we.

The good thing about this is, going into our fifth game of the tournament, that we're all in it together: we all know England are labouring heavily and the team lacks cohesion and we're all desperate for it to come good. I don't think anyone is blaming the players as individuals, we know they care and are trying. The problem is the obvious imbalance in the squad and in the system we're playing - and Gareth Southgate is where the buck stops there.

This tournament Switzerland are playing much better than England, England are literally hanging on with a lot of luck and eventually their luck will run out. I'm afriad Switzerland will put England out of their misery in their next game just like they did with Italy, England (1) Switzerland (3) is my prediction

Gary Neville looks like he's using a Gary Neville filter.

Please put the hungry young players on. Defo Gordon to give us a left wing threat, maybe palmer, and sub kane ffs. We have pacey strikers on the bench desperate for a go

Neville is usually fairly sensible on this, but here he is part of the problem. Southgate is a fair-weather manager. He had a group of new players that he had a good prior relationship with, improved the atmosphere in the camp, and that went a long way. But he had easy runs and barely responded when things did get tougher. That's glaringly obvious now we're experiencing problems. Ultimately coaching matters, and we look lost. His ineptitude is impacting the players now