Gareth Southgate’s England Record – How Does He Compare to Previous England Managers?
On August 5, 2024 by wx2w0 StandardJust two days after losing the Euro 2024 final against Spain, Gareth Southgate announced his resignation as England manager. Although his contract was due to expire in December anyway, it had been widely reported that the FA were willing to offer him an extension until at least the 2026 World Cup.
Rather than stick around though, Southgate stated in his farewell speech that, “it’s time for change, and for a new chapter.” In doing so he relinquished a role he had held for the past eight years, overseeing 102 matches in this time. With only Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey having presided over more Three Lions matches, let us take a closer look at Southgate’s substantial England record.
Win Percentage
We will start by looking at Southgate’s win percentage, a measure often used when trying to judge a manager’s performance, after all, their main job is to win football matches. Ignoring Sam Allardyce, who won his only game in charge before leaving by mutual consent, Southgate ranks fifth on the all-time England manager list.
Manager | Games Won | Games Drawn | Games Lost | Win % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fabio Capello | 28 | 8 | 6 | 66.7% |
Alf Ramsey | 69 | 27 | 17 | 61.1% |
Glenn Hoddle | 17 | 6 | 5 | 60.7% |
Ron Greenwood | 33 | 12 | 10 | 60% |
Gareth Southgate | 61 | 24 | 17 | 59.8% |
Some of you may be surprised to see Capello on top given he is not fondly remembered. Despite his unattractive style of football and poor performance in the 2010 World Cup though, he did know how to win matches. Coming fifth on this list is certainly commendable but some may say it is a slight underperformance given how strong the England squad was for most of Southgate’s reign. Most would argue Roy Hodgson had a significantly weaker squad but his win percentage (58.9%) is barely lower than Southgate’s.
Goals For/Against
One complaint levelled against Southgate following England’s Euro 2024 exit, was his inability to get England firing in attack. Based on this, we wanted to look at the numbers to see if England were actually more toothless under Southgate overall compared to other recent managers.
Manager | Average Goals Scored Per Game | Average Goals Against Per Game | For/Against Difference |
---|---|---|---|
Gareth Southgate | 2.09 | 0.71 | +1.38 |
Roy Hodgson | 1.85 | 0.79 | +1.06 |
Fabio Capello | 2.12 | 0.83 | +1.29 |
Steve McClaren | 1.78 | 0.67 | +1.11 |
Sven-Goran Eriksson | 1.91 | 0.91 | +1.00 |
While the complaints at Euro 2024 were largely justified, England often did not struggle for goals under Southgate as these stats show. Only Fabio Capello boasts a marginally better goals-per-game record but at the expense of a significantly weaker defensive record.
World Cup Record
While there is nothing overly impressive about Southgate’s win record, he did oversee big improvements in England’s performances at major tournaments, including the World Cup. The ex-Middlesborough manager’s first World Cup was in 2018 and four years earlier, the Three Lions had faced elimination in the group stages after collecting just one point. In fact, they had not gone further than the quarter-final stage since 1990, which was certainly quite a dismal record for such a big footballing nation.
Under Southgate’s leadership though, England managed to reach the semi-finals in 2018. As they lost the third place play-off after this, their official tournament finish was 4th, equalling their effort of Italia 1990. The following World Cup, in Qatar, Southgate can consider himself unlucky not to have gone further. A strong group stage showing which saw England score nine goals was followed by a comfortable 3-0 win over Senegal. The quarter-final draw was not kind though as here they faced eventual finalists France, who managed to edge an enthralling contest after Harry Kane uncharacteristically missed a late penalty.
Across the two World Cups, here is Southgate’s record.
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win % | Goals Scored | Goals Against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 50% | 25 | 12 |
European Championship Record
The European Championships is where Gareth Southgate enjoyed the most success during his time as England boss. Given that his side were second-favourites in 2020 and outright pre-tournament favourites in 2024 though, you may say he underachieved. So was he really that successful? However, you have to look at how Southgate compares to other England managers in this competition.
Before Southgate, England had never managed to reach the final of the Euros, let alone win the competition. You had to go all the way back to 1996 to find the last time they went as far as the semi-finals. So, when considering England’s huge struggles in this competition, reaching back-to-back finals is quite an accomplishment. With a tiny amount more luck, he could have ended England’s long barren patch in this tournament too. His men were deservedly beaten by Spain in what proved to be his final game in charge but against Italy in Euro 2020, England only lost out due to a penalty shootout.
Performances at the Euros were often not too convincing but they were still an improvement on what came before and got fans back home believing again. Across the 2012 and 2016 editions of the tournament, England managed just nine goals scored from eight matches.
Here is Southgate’s Euro record.
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win % | Goals Scored | Goals Against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 | 8 | 5 | 1* | 57% | 19 | 8 |
*This is based on normal time and extra time and doesn’t include the penalty defeat to Italy as England technically drew the match.
Nations League Record
Although the Nations League is not a major competition like the two mentioned above, matches in the tournament are still classed as competitive fixtures and ones managers tend to take relatively seriously. As the competition only began in 2018, we cannot compare Southgate’s record against any other England manager but we can judge it against general expectations.
He came very close to meeting expectations in the first iteration of the tournament after reaching the semi-final stage, only to lose 3-1 after extra time to the Netherlands. In 2020-21 though the Three Lions finished third in their group of four, finishing behind Denmark due to an inferior head-to-head record. Relegation from League A followed in 2022-23, which was a slight source of embarrassment particularly as Southgate failed to win any of his six matches.
Thankfully Southgate will be best remembered for reaching two consecutive Euro finals, rather than his poor Nations League record… because it really is quite a poor record in that competition.
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win % | Goals Scored | Goals Against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 28% | 18 | 22 |