Definitely been a big shift in tone. Feels like they've been told by the higher ups to stop being negative and get behind the lads ffs.

Weird because normally the group games tend to be a bit dull and the knockouts are where the tournament gets going. This time around the groups were alright, but the knockouts have either been predictable results or teams simply trying not to lose. Austria/Turkey and Spain/Germany the two exceptions.

Yeah it's been depressing tbh. Spain and Germany the only teams to really show up and they unfortunately (from a neutral perspective) met each other in the quarters. Could possibly put Austria and Georgia in that bracket as well, but both still went out in the last 16.

Scoring with our only shot on target yet again. That old saying about it being better to be a lucky manager than a good one should have a picture of Gareth next to it.

One thing I will say, I'd that if we do go through I won't say it's undeserved. That would imply Switzerland deserve to go through, and they definitely don't. Slovakia were far more of a threat than the Swiss have been today.

Amazing what happens when you actually shoot. Our reactive manager as usual bailed out by dismal opposition who can't even do basic closing down. Just attack ffs. Go for it. This swiss team are bang average, we don't need to sit back and fear them.

Hope we do go out at this point. It's nothing more than Southgate deserves. He's been abysmal this tournament. Unable to coach or motivate the players. Unable to field a balanced team. Unable to be proactive. Delusional comments, delusional mindset, and raking in £4.5m for it. Nice gig if you can get it.

Still no shots on target, lol. Best performance of the tournament rumbles on.

Still been pretty abject from my pov. Couple of decent runs from Mainoo, otherwise... Genuinely think any perceived improvement is just the lack of energy from the opposition. After the huge buildup from the Swiss side, their fans must be perplexed at their team putting in such a lacklustre performance.

Not sure why the narrative on the BBC that we're massively improved. Five shots and none on target, wow. Amazing. Switzerland have been more disappointing than we have been impressive. Think Italy made them look a lot better than they are. This is a team that drew 1-1 with Scotland, after all.

Did anyone really, honestly expect any unenforced changes? Gareth has become everything he wasn't when he first started the job, now picking players on reputation and status rather than how well they're playing. We'll see how it works out for him.

Hopefully carries on his form from Club Brugge where he was binned after just 3 months for being terrible. Happy with the appointment as I don't think he's a good manager, but as Parker himself has shown, along with the likes of Russell Martin and Daniel Farke, you don't have to be an especially good manager to get a parachute club out of the division, such is the financial/squad quality gap these days.

Something something silhouette. I don't really get it.

What's old Johnny P up to then? Seems like an easy gig.

Knew as soon as it went to pens Portugal would win. I know it's Portugal, but at the same time... not sure I could deal with watching another Slovenia game. They try hard but have had no offensive quality in this tournament. The penalties summed them up as an attacking force.

Portugal very, very lucky that Slovenia's attacking options are abysmal.

Ronaldo's head's gone here. Jeez.

Think the Beeb said it was 57 rather than 157, but they made the same comment so assume it is true, whatever the number.

Let's be honest, the only one who takes Ronaldo off is Ronaldo. Martinez is just a cheerleader on the sidelines.

A textbook case of falling upwards. Remarkable really.

True, but it still makes it look more impressive than it is to say 1967 - 2016 when it's arguably not really comparable until 2000, or 1996 at a push.

Some signficiant caveats there, particularly when it comes to both the WC and the Euros being continuously expanded to include increasingly weaker teams which make it easier to qualify, easier to get out of the group and easier to win earlier knockout games. In terms of tournament statistics, it would be difficult to compare Southgate with any manager pre-2000 simply because of how much the tournaments have changed structurally. The 1992 Euros had 8 teams, now there's 24. Also have to factor in that many England managers post-Robson didn't have the amount of tournaments Southate has had. Venables had one, Euro 96. Hoddle had one, World Cup 98. I think you could argue quite sensibly that the only managers Southgate can be directly compared to on most metrics are Sven and Roy.

Georgia gave it a go, but the gulf in class was too much in the end. If Georgia has scored on one of their counters when it was 1-0 or 1-1 it could have made things very interesting, but it wasn't to be and ultimately Spain deserved to go through as they were by far the better team. Georgia can be proud of their efforts regardless, a brilliant first tournament for them. Spain / Germany in the quarters will take out one of the two best teams in the tournament in the last eight.

I think we're both in agreement there. I don't think the Swiss will be too concerned. I imagine they'll consider this their best chance so far to reach a semi final.

Ref seemed to be trying to establish his authority early on with unnecessary yellows, but as you say, it made him look inconsistent when he didn't give cards for fouls that were clearly worse later on and actually deserving of a yellow.