DE.

He lacks what's needed to be a good club manager, particularly when it comes to in game management and tactical knowledge. However, his ability to quickly create a unified environment and avoid significant controversy makes him a good fit as an international manager. His weaknesses are often masked by him having a wealth of top level talent available to pull out moments of magic - see Bellingham against Slovakia and Saka against Switzerland. You don't have that at many clubs except the very best, and at those you need more than just good man management to really succeed. These clubs want trophies, and don't see second place or semi finals as "success". They also wouldn't accept being beaten almost every time they come up against a club of similar stature.

I don't get how it's become an argument. Obviously we've been fortunate in this tournament in numerous ways. We had statistically one of the worst Euros groups ever and winning that group (with only one victory and two goals) means we avoided pretty much all of the big boys. We have enough of the propaganda from Rovers, do we need it for England as well? It's okay to say we've been lucky so far. It's not a knock on Southgate or the team. Luck plays a massive part in sports as not everything can be calculated to specific outcomes. What will matter is if we can take advantage of that to win the tournament. So far, by hook or by crook, we have done. Now our first genuine test arrives on Wednesday - let's see what we can do.

Germany, Spain and Portugal all won their groups and ended up on the difficult side of the draw, though. Indeed, so much so that Spain and Germany played each other in the quarters. Surely you have to accept there's some luck there in how the seedings worked out.

If somebody wants to say with a straight face that they enjoyed tonight's match across the entire 120 minutes then fine, but people are also allowed to say they didn't like it and found it boring. Across the first and second half I believe we had a single shot on target. If that's entertaining to you then that's great, but it probably isn't to a lot of people, even if that sole shot on target went in.

Glad we'll be playing a half decent team in the semis. It's not an all time Dutch squad by any stretch, but they'll give us a very different test and we will definitely need to raise our game to get past them. I don't think they'll let us zombify the game in the same way all of our previous opponents have. In fairness, I think Turkey would have given us a challenge as well. I think they'll go home proud, they've far exceeded expectations and been a lot of fun to watch. If we do get to the final, I'd want us to have beaten at least one genuinely good team on the way there. For confidence and momentum if nothing else. The Dutch would be a decent scalp and you have to think it'd give the players, the manager and the fans a big boost if we did get past them.

Our five pens were a masterclass. Technique and they all held their nerve. Never thought I'd see that from a set of English penalty takers.

Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey... some route to a Euros final if Turkey win tonight and we scrape past them in the semis.

The team once again looked a lot better after subs. For what it's worth I do appreciate that dropping Kane would be very difficult as he's a dressing room leader, vastly experienced and historically a difference maker. He's just not been in this tournament though. A couple of poacher goals but for huge swathes of the game playing with Kane is like playing with ten.

As I've mentioned previously, you can't really compare pre-92 because of the expansion of lesser teams into the tournaments. Post-92 we've often met top teams before the semis. Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Portugal x2. WC 2014 we had Italy and Uruguay in our group. So yeah, context gives a different perspective. Can't argue with the facts, but, there's no doubt we've enjoyed good fortune with our seedings under Southgate. And still haven't actually won anything.

Fantastic penalties tbh. Made it look easy. No sympathy for the Swiss. We were there for the taking and they didn't bring it. They can't complain about going out. They'll never have a better chance to get to a semi final, but they just can't move past being a tournament filler team. We stumble on. Portugal 2016 vibes.

Might be the first England penalty shoot out where I have zero nerves. If we go through then fine, if we don't then never mind. We won't be missed.

Assuming it ends like this, I hope the Swiss pens mirror their shooting attempts today. Like they think they're playing rugby.

Definitely been a big shift in tone. Feels like they've been told by the higher ups to stop being negative and get behind the lads ffs.

Weird because normally the group games tend to be a bit dull and the knockouts are where the tournament gets going. This time around the groups were alright, but the knockouts have either been predictable results or teams simply trying not to lose. Austria/Turkey and Spain/Germany the two exceptions.

Yeah it's been depressing tbh. Spain and Germany the only teams to really show up and they unfortunately (from a neutral perspective) met each other in the quarters. Could possibly put Austria and Georgia in that bracket as well, but both still went out in the last 16.

Scoring with our only shot on target yet again. That old saying about it being better to be a lucky manager than a good one should have a picture of Gareth next to it.

One thing I will say, I'd that if we do go through I won't say it's undeserved. That would imply Switzerland deserve to go through, and they definitely don't. Slovakia were far more of a threat than the Swiss have been today.

Amazing what happens when you actually shoot. Our reactive manager as usual bailed out by dismal opposition who can't even do basic closing down. Just attack ffs. Go for it. This swiss team are bang average, we don't need to sit back and fear them.

Hope we do go out at this point. It's nothing more than Southgate deserves. He's been abysmal this tournament. Unable to coach or motivate the players. Unable to field a balanced team. Unable to be proactive. Delusional comments, delusional mindset, and raking in £4.5m for it. Nice gig if you can get it.

Still no shots on target, lol. Best performance of the tournament rumbles on.

Still been pretty abject from my pov. Couple of decent runs from Mainoo, otherwise... Genuinely think any perceived improvement is just the lack of energy from the opposition. After the huge buildup from the Swiss side, their fans must be perplexed at their team putting in such a lacklustre performance.

Not sure why the narrative on the BBC that we're massively improved. Five shots and none on target, wow. Amazing. Switzerland have been more disappointing than we have been impressive. Think Italy made them look a lot better than they are. This is a team that drew 1-1 with Scotland, after all.

Did anyone really, honestly expect any unenforced changes? Gareth has become everything he wasn't when he first started the job, now picking players on reputation and status rather than how well they're playing. We'll see how it works out for him.

Hopefully carries on his form from Club Brugge where he was binned after just 3 months for being terrible. Happy with the appointment as I don't think he's a good manager, but as Parker himself has shown, along with the likes of Russell Martin and Daniel Farke, you don't have to be an especially good manager to get a parachute club out of the division, such is the financial/squad quality gap these days.

Something something silhouette. I don't really get it.