The numbers behind Gareth Southgate’s eight-year England reign

Jul 16, 2024 3 min read
Gareth Southgate took England to the brink of silverware (Bradley Collyer/PA)
Gareth Southgate took England to the brink of silverware (Bradley Collyer/PA)

Gareth Southgate has stepped down from his role as England manager after his team tasted defeat in a second successive European Championship final on Sunday.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at Southgate’s record in charge.

Major tournaments

England manager Gareth Southgate receives his runners-up medal from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin following the Euro 2020 final at Wembley
Southgate took England to the verge of major silverware (Mike Egerton/PA)

Southgate took England closer to World Cup or European Championship glory than any manager other than Sir Alf Ramsey, reaching back-to-back European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final.

They won only three games out of seven at the 2018 World Cup, with the penalty shoot-out success against Colombia recorded as a draw for the official records, but reached the last four and took an early lead before Croatia fought back to win in extra time. Their other defeats both came against Belgium, in a group-stage dead rubber and then the third place play-off.

A draw with Scotland was the only blemish on their Euro 2020 record until the final saw Italy recover from Luke Shaw’s early strike to win on penalties – England scoring 11 goals in seven games and conceding only two.

A 6-2 win over Iran kicked off another promising campaign at Qatar 2022, a stalemate against the United States a brief blip before 3-0 wins over Wales and Senegal – only for France to triumph 2-1 in a dramatic quarter-final as Harry Kane scored one penalty but missed another.

England’s Harry Kane, left, puts a penalty over the bar during the World Cup quarter-final against France in 2022
Defeat to France was the only time in four major tournaments that Southgate’s England missed out on a semi-final place (Mike Egerton/PA)

An underwhelming 1-0 win over Serbia and draws with Denmark and Slovenia were enough to top Group C this time around before edging past Slovakia in extra time and Switzerland on penalties – England’s third win in four shoot-outs under Southgate.

Substitute Ollie Watkins grabbed a late semi-final winner against the Netherlands but Cole Palmer’s equaliser was not enough in the final as Mikel Oyarzabal slid in the winner.

In 26 games at the World Cup and Euros Southgate’s side won 14, drawn seven and lost five for a 53.8 per cent win rate, scoring 44 goals and conceding 20.

Overall record

Graphic showing England's record under Gareth Southgate. Overall: Won 61, drawn 24, lost 17. Major tournaments: Won 14, drawn seven, lost five
Gareth Southgate won almost 60 per cent of games as England manager (PA graphic)

That major tournament record compares creditably to Southgate’s overall figures with England, which reads 61 wins from 102 games (59.8 per cent), with 24 draws and 17 defeats.

His side scored 213 goals and conceded 72 – their average of 2.1 goals per game drops slightly to 1.7 in major tournaments while their goals against increase marginally from 0.7 to 0.8 per game.

Captain Kane was, unsurprisingly, the most-used player and top scorer of his reign, with Southgate giving him 81 caps which have yielded all but five of his England record 66 goals. Kane wore the armband for 71 of those games.

England manager Gareth Southgate, left, puts his arm round Harry Kane as he is substituted against Denmark
Harry Kane, right, was Southgate’s key man (Adam Davy/PA)

Kyle Walker was next with 70 appearances for Southgate, two more than Manchester City team-mate John Stones and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford with Harry Maguire on 63.

Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Declan Rice, Jordan Henderson and Kieran Trippier were the other players to make a half-century of appearances for Southgate, who used 99 players in all and given debuts to 66 – from Jesse Lingard in his first game in charge to Adam Wharton just ahead of the Euros.

Kane aside, the other players in double figures for goals under Southgate were Sterling (18), Rashford (16) and Bukayo Saka (12).

Southgate’s biggest win was a 10-0 World Cup qualifying success against minnows San Marino, with his heaviest defeat being 4-0 to Hungary in a 2022 Nations League clash.

England conceded more than once in only 17 of his 100 games, with 53 clean sheets, and scored four or more on 20 occasions.

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