Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said he would "love" Gareth Southgate to stay on as England head coach as he analysed the Three Lions’ World Cup exit to France.
The 43-year-old, capped 41 times for England during his career, spoke to Betfred TV about the France match and Southgate’s future.
On the France defeat, he said: “It does feel a little bit different because it was a 50/50 game, they are going head-to-head with the world champions. They’ve not underperformed, they’ve not underachieved. They’ve been knocked out by potentially the winners of this tournament.
"They are one of the favourites now - and I think the way they’ve gone through the tournament, there is not a lot that the manager would do differently.
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“Look at the way he [Southgate] set his team up going into this game. I think 80-85% of the public agreed with the back four. His starting XI, the majority of people would have agreed with that. Sterling or Rashford could have come into that, a few people will have different opinions on that, the only real criticism that you can level at him again is his in-game management, which is not something new.
"But they’ve gone head-to-head with the world champions and fine margins again [have been the difference]. His team set-up, his tactics were right and he’s done an excellent job with that throughout the tournament.”
Robinson feels that Southgate’s contributions have earned him the right for his future to be in his own hands and he would like to see the 52-year-old to stay on with England.
“England are coming out of a tournament disappointed, again at the quarter-final stage, but you look at the progression that’s been made under Gareth Southgate. He’s well within his rights to decide what he wants to do. He’s done a good job, a very good job to put the team where they are now. The big question for him now is taking the job to the next level, and that’s the Euros in 18 months time.
“And from the FA’s point of view I’m one million per cent sure they’ll want to keep him. You look at the work not only he’s done with the first team but through the FA setup, the structure he’s put in place, and it’s coming to fruition.
“He looks tired after the World Cup which is understandable because of the work that goes into it. It isn’t chucking a plan together two weeks before, this is planned since the last World Cup, the last Euros. This plan has been in operation for a long time. He’s experienced some highs this year but I think he’s also had his lowest point too after they got booed off when they lost 4-0 to Hungary at Molineux.
“In a manager’s life that wasn’t that long ago. We’ve all kind of forgotten about it now because the team’s playing really well. He’s probably looking at it thinking, six months ago we were really poor against Hungary, the fans had turned on me singing ‘you don’t know what you’re doing.’ It’s harsh on a man who’s put England where they are now.
“It’s a double-edged sword for him and he’s got two ways to look at it. Has he got the passion, the drive and enthusiasm to push England along?
“He’s earned the right to do that and I’d love him to stay on and do that if he is still passionate and driven to do it.”
Robinson also looked ahead to the two World Cup semi-finals this week, talking about surprise package Morocco and how he feels penalties could be on the cards for Argentina v Croatia.
“They [Morocco] have been a surprise, you look at their squad ahead of the tournament and they have some quality players playing in some of Europe’s top leagues. So when they got out of the group and you dissected it, it wasn’t much of a surprise. Then when you look at the way they got past Spain and Portugal you think at some point the bubble is going to burst but it hasn’t. I think France will be too strong for them but they’ll have to move the ball quickly to break them down.
“If you look at Argentina’s record heading into this tournament, 36 games unbeaten, one blip against Saudi Arabia, but have been unbeaten since. But defensively they can be got at which we saw against the Netherlands.
“This is a game of two juggernauts who know how to get a job done. Croatia always seem to be there. Argentina have that quality with [Lionel] Messi, [Julian] Alvarez and [Lautaro] Martinez. This is going to be a really tight call, they’ve both gone to penalties [in their last match] and I can see this one going all the way.”
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