Rooney: this England team is better than 2018. Southgate should stay.

England resident Wayne Rooney wrote in the Times that although it stops in the final eight, England is better than 2018 and Southgate should stay.
I enjoyed England’s journey in the 2018 World Cup, when they reached the semi-finals, not far from beating Croatia and reaching the final, but I was more satisfied with England’s performance in this World Cup.
A lot of people say that football is about results, but when judging a team, you have to focus on both performance and opponents, and ask, “is this improving?” Or something like that. That’s why for me, England did better in Qatar than they did in Russia.
The result of their loss to France cannot be used as a basis for judgment, because France is an excellent team and they are world champions.
England are the better players in this game. England lost only a few details, Grizman’s brilliant cross and Kane’s penalty. If there is another match, England will win the game.
For me, England have taken a big step in the right direction. Later I listened to some interviews with Southgate and when he said that England could now play against the greatest players in international football, he was right and they could do it.
That’s why Southgate should stay, at least until Euro 2024. The players respect him, the team has a good mentality, the team is getting better and better on the pitch, and the European Cup in Germany is a good opportunity.
Throughout the World Cup, we saw that England played very well, positive and had a lot of control. Their work was balanced and Southgate made the right decisions in terms of choices and tactics, seeing things that fans might not see sometimes.
I think the media and the public will appreciate the performance of this England team. When England were knocked out in the knockout stages, people were looking for scapegoats. I was considered a criminal in 2006, David Beckham in 1998 and Southgate himself in 1996. But there’s no scapegoat this time.
Kane missed the penalty, but the media didn’t kill him and no one wanted to hang him. That’s because I think the whole country respects England’s efforts. We played good football and we didn’t get good results against France, which could happen because France is a top team.
As an England fan, I would be very angry if the ball was missed by someone else. But for Kane, no English player is more suitable for a penalty kick than him.
England is beginning to be respected by the largest teams in the world, from France to Argentina to Brazil. Even if they don’t win anything, they are now frightening other countries, which is a very positive step. The 2022 World Cup makes me very optimistic about the future of England because they are still very young.