GARETH IS ALREADY ENGLAND GREAT
Rival boss Berhalter in awe of ‘fantastic’ finals record
GREGG BERHALTER believes Gareth Southgate deserves to be recognised as one of England’s greatest managers.
Berhalter established a connection with Southgate when he asked for advice after being appointed USA head coach in 2018.
They have built up a mutual respect, and Berhalter revealed his admiration for the job Southgate has done ahead of their teams meeting in Qatar on November 25.
The American said: “If they have a run at this World Cup, a really good run, you could argue that he’s one of the most successful England managers of all time. Say they go to the final, then his three major tournaments would be: final, final and semi-final. That’s a very strong record. The public wants the team to win. I understand that, I’m sure Gareth understands that.
“Even if it is a friendly, even if it is a Nations League group game, they want to see the team win and that’s our responsibility as managers. From what I know from coaching the national team, you’re only really as good as your last game. England have had a difficult time recently.
“But what I would say, let’s focus on the major tournaments. European Championship, he went to the final. World Cup, they went to the semi-final.
“Look at that record in just major tournaments alone and that’s why we play the game at international level: for major tournaments. He’s done a fantastic job.”
Berhalter is the first man to coach the US national team having played for them at aWorld Cup and the 49-year-old has, like Southgate, championed young players and given them a chance to shine.
“There were a lot of parallels from when he took over compared to when I took over,” said Berhalter. “That’s why I thought it was really impactful to reach out to him and see if he had some minutes to spare and if I could learn from him.
“It was really important. The story from when he took over the squad was brilliant, that first couple of years of how he managed
through that, I really admired
that.” Berhalter believes England are among the favourites to win the World Cup, but although the American is expected to have one of the youngest squads in Qatar, he insists they must be ambitious.
He said: “England are still probably one of the favourites. The squad that Gareth can choose from is legitimately 40 players of high quality deep.
“We are legitimately looking at this as two separate tournaments. You have a group stage where you have a tournament of four teams and all you need to do is be in the top two.That’s our starting point.
“From there, if you’re in the top two then you have to earn the right to play in this knockout tournament, which is only four games long and you don’t have to be the best team in the world to win that.
“All you have to be is be better than the four teams you face on that particular day.
“If we go to this game, advance into the knockout tournament, play this game and then we play our best game but don’t win, we can still walk off the field and feel proud.
“If we do win then we’ll advance into that next round and also feel proud. So it’s really hard to say concrete that we want to go this far or do that. But we want to use this group stage tournament to get into that other special tournament.
“From being a player in the World Cup then being a coach in the World Cup, I’m really blessed.
“I’m really excited to bring this group out and show the world what this group is about. Because it’s a fantastic group of individuals, it’s a really tight group of guys and it’s going to be fun.”