Gareth Southgate England weakness comments blow door wide open on West Ham’s problems

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Gareth Southgate has hit the nail on the head with a big problem that England face at the moment, and it will really resonate with the West Ham fans.

The Three Lions and the Hammers are both in the same boat at the moment.

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A succession of poor results and worryingly bad performances have left Gareth Southgate and David Moyes under real pressure.

Gareth Southgate has received heavy criticism from England fans for his defensive setup, negative tactics and team selection.

He dropped a few players from his match-day squad for the game against Germany, Jarrod Bowen included, and it begged the question why on earth were they called up in the first place?

Meanwhile, David Moyes is under fire for similar failures to the Three Lions manager. And something that Southgate said about his side’s performance last night could just as easily be said about the West Ham team this season…

Gareth Southgate criticises England, it’s something West Ham can learn from

The England boss was happy with the character that his players showed to get back into the game against Germany last night.

However, he was far from happy with the lack of intensity of his side’s pressing, as quoted via England’s official website:

We started the game a bit tentatively and you could feel the crowd were with us but wondering how everything would play out. Subconsciously, the team felt that a little bit, we weren’t aggressive enough with our pressing against a team who manipulated the space really well. We didn’t get the ball from our back players into midfield well enough, we weren’t as positive as we should have been there.

West Ham need to learn from those comments.

And by West Ham I mean David Moyes, the players AND the fans.

Firstly, Moyes has said numerous times that it is his desire to turn the Hammers into more of a possession-based team, rather than a counter-attacking one.

In order for that to materialise, we need to press far higher up the pitch and do so with more intensity and aggression.

Secondly, the players need to be prepared to carry this out on the pitch. They obviously need to be fitter to press properly and efficiently but it also needs to be drilled into them how to press correctly as a unit.

Too often when we try to press, there is no method to it and it’s all very haphazard.

And thirdly, the fans need to get right behind the players as soon as the game kicks off. Of course, the emphasis is on the team to get the fans off their seats.

We really believe that the London Stadium crowd could do more to get behind the players though. We are in a real mess at the moment, and the only way to get out of it is for everyone involved with the club to pull together.

The comments on the weaknesses of the England team from Gareth Southgate should send a strong message to Moyes, his players and the West Ham fans.

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