Speaking exclusively to BoyleSports, England legend Stuart Pearce has backed Gareth Southgate to be the ideal candidate to take over at Manchester United.
Pearce has also backed Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo to star for England at Euro 2024 this summer and admitted that the Three Lions could struggle without Luke Shaw.
The iconic left-back has also admitted that Southgate is under more pressure than ever in the England dugout while tipping Jordan Pickford to be a designated penalty taker.
Southgate is Ideal for Man United
Gareth Southgate has what it takes to manage a club like Manchester United, without a doubt. He'll build a good team of coaches around him to supplement himself and the way he conducts himself, as we've seen with England, has been fantastic. I think he would be ideal.
Professional football management is very difficult, and we have even criticised some of the best managers the world's ever seen, so no one's immune from criticism, but there's no doubt in my mind that he would be good enough to manage Manchester United.
If you have managed England and you dealt with the pressures of that, you can absolutely handle it at club level.
Mainoo Breakout Tournament
Kobbie Mainoo could end up being England’s unexpected star player at Euro 2024, which often happens in these major tournaments.
In my time we had the likes of Des Walker and David Platt who enhanced their reputations, even Paul Gascoigne.
Mainoo has to take everything in his stride having been arguably the best player in the FA Cup final, he has fit in seamlessly at Manchester United and given the club a huge lift.
He’s also stopped in for England and taken that in his stride. That’s the beauty of English football at the moment, young players get the opportunity, and they already look very rounded and very comfortable in the environment.
Shaw’s Importance
England’s chances of winning the tournament will be far lesser if Luke Shaw isn’t fit to play. I'd never thought I'd sit here and say that his availability would have a major impact on our chances, but I honestly believe that.
I've thought that for a number of months now when he hasn't been available, I think both defensively and going forward he gives England so much more.
Southgate Under Pressure
It’s fair to say that there is more pressure than ever on the shoulders of Gareth Southgate because he has an embarrassment of riches in the front half of the team.
Gareth is a friend of mine and I'm a big supporter of what he's done for English football, he's created a great culture around England, and he's got tournament experience now both as a player and as a manager.
He'll know exactly what's needed at a major tournament like this and with the crop of players he has at his disposal, he’ll be putting pressure on himself.
“He wants to achieve, and he wants to win something for the country that he loves so much so there will be pressure on himself from the outside and from the inside as well.
England’s penalty-takers?
My starting point would be looking at the analytics, some of the team working with Gareth worked with me at the Under 21s and they have done some brilliant studies on penalty shootouts around the world.
They will know the best five penalty-takers within the squad statistically. If I’m looking at the squad, Bukayo Saka stands up to take penalties, Harry Kane also does for his club.
Away from those I’d look at Jordan Pickford, he is a decent penalty taker and I often think that goalkeepers are very good penalty takers when you look at the stats. They can be overlooked as they don’t take them during the 90 minutes.
For me, picking the order is not about character, it's not about composure, it's about nothing else but pure statistics. That's how I worked when I was an international manager.
We practised for two years pre-tournament, so I had statistics for instance of Joe Hart facing 350 penalties in my care as a goalkeeper and his save ratio being 17%.
So you know when you do stats like that, that's your comfort blanket going into a penalty shootout phase and Gareth would have all that at his disposal.
Pickford For Penalties
I would have Jordan Pickford in my first five if the stats say so because he’s got that confidence. When I had Joe Hart, he came out on top of the stats in practice. So he took our second penalty solely on the fact, it wasn't a gut reaction.
You've got to look at the likes of Cole Palmer, who looks very composed from a penalty spot as well for his club, he might be one that if he's not in the starting lineup, you look to bring off the bench to make sure your strongest takers are on the pitch.
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