Now we have had time to reflect on England what's your opinion Its easy to want to do things differently after a loss but this was a marginal loss. Italy are on a very long unbeaten run and are very strong defensively, so I dont think all out attack was ever going to be an option. England too are strong defensively so after going 1-0 up early I can see why they backed themselves to not concede. The downside to letting the opposition have the ball is that they can play themselves into form and after about 20 mins Italy were pinging it about for fun. However they were not really creating much in the way of clear chances, so England were still happy.
Not much changed in the 2nd half, one 25yd shot was well saved by Pickford, but still Italy were not creating good chances. They got some luck with the goal after the shot was pushed onto the post and fell perfectly for Bonucci. Then England had a problem because they had to now go and win it again but had spent so long defending they had forgotten how to attack. They did have a good spell in extra time when Italy had tried and failed to get a 2nd and had almost resigned themselves to penalties.
The 2 sub on 120 mins I do have a big problem with. There were 3 mins added time and England had Rashford at right back. If Italy had scored from a left wing cross in that 3 mins I think Southgate would have resigned by now. Rashford and Sancho looked very nervous waiting to come on and who can blame them. They had hardly touched the ball in the 3 mins they played and were then asked to take the most important shot of their careers. Also asking the youngest player in the team to take pen 5 was a mistake, and I think if Southgate was really honest he will admit that the penalty plans were too much based on practise ground performance, and not enough on feel for the situation. In my opinion Sterling, Shaw and Grealish should have been ahead of Rashford, Sancho and Saka.
In my opinion Southgate has done a great job in getting England so close to winning Euro 2020. He obviously is well respected by the players and a lot of that team will be peaking in the next 4 or 5 years. I think the job is his for as long as he wants it.