Following his run to the Euro 2024 final, England manager Gareth Southgate has called time on his eight-year run at the helm of the Three Lions.
The 53-year-old decided to step down from his current position, leaving a vacancy at the world's fifth-ranked side and leaving Southgate to find a new home.
With the USMNT job currently open following Gregg Berhalter's recent dismissal, the links between the two sides are natural. Add in that U.S. sporting director Matt Crocker, a native of Wales, worked in the England setup under Southgate for a time, and there's a real likelihood that the two could be coworkers again soon.
Amidst the buzz on social media has been a variety of opinions both for and against Southgate's potential appointment at the helm of the U.S. men's national team just two years before the 2026 FIFA World Cup on home soil, considered by may to be one of the most important moments in the country's football history.
The Sporting News breaks down the advantages and disadvantages of hiring Gareth Southgate as the next USMNT head coach before coming to a conclusion on whether it would be a positive for the U.S. to move in that direction.
MORE: Why Gareth Southgate chose to step down as England manager after Euro 2024 heartbreak
Argument for hiring Gareth Southgate as next USMNT head coach
If there was one thing missing under Gregg Berhalter's tenure, it was results. More specifically, an inability to get the U.S. deep into major tournaments, something the federation and fans have craved for decades as proof of their emergence into the upper echelon of international sides.
And if there was one thing that Gareth Southgate's tenure as England manager hung its hat on, it was results — regardless of how the performances actually looked.
Prior to Southgate's arrival as England manager in 2016, the Three Lions had made the semifinals of a major international tournament four times ever since permanently re-joining FIFA in 1946. Southgate himself nearly matched that during his tenure, reaching the semifinals of three major international tournaments, finishing fourth at the 2018 World Cup in Russia before reaching the final in consecutive European Championships to follow.
Across 102 matches in charge of England, Southgate lost just 17 times, and only five of those came against countries below the upper tier of global football nations (Iceland, Hungary twice, Denmark, and Czechia).
"He really impressed me," former Chelsea and England defender Gary Cahill, who played under Southgate at the 2018 World Cup, told The Sporting News. "Especially coming in from the U-21's coming in to manage a lot of big players and personalities. He impressed me the way he manages a squad, manages people, and tactically as well.
"Managing people is a big part of it. You've got players who all think they should be in the starting eleven, and to manage that and keep people involved as well as a staff, he did that very well. The atmosphere around the tournament and what he created around the group was top. And on the pitch, the detail of preparation towards the game and who we're playing, and what he asked of the players, the whole package impressed me."
Southgate's negative tactical approach can be viewed by some as a positive. International football is, at its core, a completely different animal from the club game, as coaches must take a far more simplistic approach due to their extremely limited time with the squad. Overcomplicating the tactics and systematic ideology risks overwhelming a group of players amidst precious few training sessions and rare opportunities to build continuity and chemistry.
Another manager with a similar approach is Didier Deschamps, who won the 2018 World Cup and has also has made a habit of reaching deep into major tournaments. Deschamps was criticized throughout the 2018 competition for his negative approach, all the way up until they won the trophy.
Southgate understands the notion that results are all that matter, regardless of how exciting his team may look in the process, and the lack of eye-catching football is a sacrifice he's willing to make amidst the restrictions of international scene.
MORE: USMNT legend Clint Dempsey lays out what he wants in the next USMNT head coach
Argument against hiring Gareth Southgate as next USMNT head coach
Getting results is the most important part of an international coach's job, and there are very few opportunities to do so. It's why Gregg Berhalter was not retained after the 2024 Copa America, as the chances to gain results against top-tier sides continued to fall by the wayside.
That is what makes the following sentence feel slightly hypocritical, yet it remains true nonetheless.
Aside from their actual appearance in the final, England's performance in the 2024 European Championship was exceedingly alarming, and most of their issues fall squarely at the manager's feet.
Gareth Southgate's side refused to play any semblance of attacking football under any circumstance, until they fell behind, at which point they finally tried to play forward and score goals. It's why England's opponent scored the first goal in every single one of their knockout stage games.
Southgate repeatedly played with fire, unable to take a match by the scruff of the neck and establish a lead. And yet ... it worked, somehow, all the way up until he abandoned the approach. In a truly wild example of how mad this sport is, Southgate's undoing at the Euros was his inexplicable abandoning of his highly criticized yet so far effective ideology.
In the final, after Spain scored early in the second half, England predictably opened themselves up for the first time in the match, and managed to grab a 73rd minute equalizer through Cole Palmer ... and for the first time all tournament, Southgate decided to go for the win instead of revert into their shell, and it cost them the title.
The combination of an exceedingly negative approach coupled with a failure to remain true to the team's principles when it mattered most saw England falter at the gates of glory.
Yet that's only the tip of the iceberg. England, featuring a collection of energetic players hailing from counter-pressing clubs like Man City, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Arsenal, and other globally renowned teams, were inexplicably the worst pressing team at the Euros. Meanwhile, for all of Gregg Berhalter's faults, his calling card was the USMNT's intricate press, which was widely praised by many opposition coaches — including Southgate, ironically — after the 2022 World Cup.
Finally, Southgate displayed an unflappable loyalty to players who were not performing at Euro 2024, while leaving potential difference-makers stuck on the bench. While the likes of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, and Phil Foden struggled to produce in such a negative tactical setup, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, and other in-form players failed to see significant minutes.
Even if Southgate didn't wish to drop certain truly world-class players such as Bellingham, he rejected even suggestions to change the system to better suit those individuals. Bellingham, for example, is not a natural No. 10, only playing there in a hybrid setup at Real Madrid under tactical genius Carlo Ancelotti. He is, however, a highly proficient box-to-box center midfielder as he displayed at Borussia Dortmund, and could have easily dropped deeper to accommodate both his own abilities and those of in-form chance creator such as Palmer.
Kane, meanwhile, rotted away up front as his specific and diminishing skill-set went to waste. Instead of having Kane drop deep as he often does to great effect at the club level, Foden was inexplicably the one to fall back and begin attacking possession, essentially neutralizing both.
Finally, while Southgate has hung his England tenure on reaching deep into tournaments, those memorable runs have largely benefitted from soft draws. Most times England match up against a truly top-quality opponent, they've fallen short.
At Euro 2024, England drew a knockout stage path of Slovakia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands before reaching the final against Spain. They needed extra-time to defeat Slovakia, penalties to get by Switzerland, and a 90th-minute winner to beat the Dutch. At Euro 2020, they beat a floundering Germany (sandwiched between their two World Cup group stage exits) in the Round of 16 before drawing Ukraine and Denmark in the quarterfinals and semifinals, falling to Italy in the finals on an infamous penalty shootout.
The 2018 World Cup run was the most egregious of all, beating Tunisia and Panama in the group stage (plus defeat to Belgium), and skating past Colombia (on penalties) and Sweden in the knockout stage before falling to Croatia in the semifinals.
Should US Soccer hire Gareth Southgate to replace Berhalter?
While Gareth Southgate would bring strong international experience and a deep-seeded ability to reach far into major tournaments, there's very little to indicate his hire would bring about much change or growth at the U.S. national team.
The 53-year-old had the same problem at England which plagued the last USMNT head coach: He remained strong against inferior opponents but struggled to beat those at equal footing or better.
Under Southgate, England achieved eight victories against top 10 opponents in 26 matches. A 31 percent win-rate is excellent against the best teams in the world, but a drill down into those numbers show they aren't as impressive as they appear.
Those eight wins include two against the Netherlands, who have themselves struggled mightily to truly establish themselves amongst the global elite, one against Belgium suffering from an exacerbated version of the same problem, two against Italy who are also amidst an international slump, and one against Spain in a Nations League group stage match which saw them nearly cough up a 3-0 lead.
Gregg Berhalter brought the U.S. through a period of massive growth both on and off the field, increasing the talent pool significantly and seeing the national team establish dominance over CONCACAF on the whole. A very similar arc took place with Southgate at England, and in truth, his tenure was quite similar to Berhalter's.
Yet he failed to then take the next step. Mike Goodman of CBS Sports recently said on his podcast Double Pivot, "a manager's job is to make himself obsolete." As Goodman puts it, a manager's existence is to solve as many existing problems as they can upon being hired, and then when other problems arise from that process, they will be unable to solve them. Thus, Southgate would not be the man to now solve the problems which arose from Berhalter's tenure, as he created similar ones in his previous job.
Ultimately, Southgate achieved very few truly impressive results, and because of it, finished without a trophy despite their deep runs. In fact, had a few breaks not gone their way — Bellingham's incredible rescue job against Slovakia this summer the latest example — his major tournament record would look a whole lot different.
Coupled with the glaring tactical issues already addressed, there's hardly anything other than the buzz word "experience" to back the former England boss in his current iteration. The U.S. can find experience elsewhere (such as Roberto Martinez) if they see it a priority, and if not, Southgate has little else to offer.
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