Gareth Southgate deserves his moment in the sun now as England manager – and here’s why it’s unfair to say he’s underachieved, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Roger Federer knows a thing or two about winning. It also seems like he knows more than we might have assumed about losses and the small margins between them.

That was the theme of a lecture he recently gave to students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He was there to receive an honorary degree and for the better part of 25 minutes, Dr. Roger at a tree stump and shared some lessons from life and tennis. As syrupy as that sounds, it was a brilliant speech.

But there was an element of surprise, which came as he worked on his point-losing message.

“Of the 1,526 singles matches I played, I won almost 80 percent of them,” he told his audience. “What percentage of points do you think I won with that?”

After a brief silence, he answered his own question: “54 percent.”

That segment was delivered in a certain context, in the sense of ignoring your setbacks and moving on.

But what it also tells us is the value of great sporting moments. It tells us that Federer lost almost half the points he contested and still won twenty Grand Slams because he elevated himself for the moments that mattered. Just as Rafael Nadal won 22 and Novak Djokovic 24, with an eerily identical points ratio: 54 percent.

Of course, we can ask ourselves here about Andy Murray and then there will be a penny dropping, because he has won 53 percent of his points on his way to three Slams. A great career, there’s no doubt about it, but in the moments of greatest importance he was a fraction less great.

All of this reminds me of Gareth Southgate and his moments – the moments that define his tenure as England manager.

As he gets back into the mill, we have to relive a few here as moments fade with time. Moments shrink until detail and perspective are lost, leaving only results. And the results are at the same time black and white, definitive and enormously limiting.

So when people shout nonsense about Southgate, when they say he has underperformed, when they say he has failed to maximize the players at his disposal, when they imply indifference or even glee at the likelihood that after this German summer will leave the post, then look at three results from 95 matches.

But maybe they, we, should look more at moments instead. Because the moments tell different stories. They shape instead of minimizing. They show Harry Kane going through with Danijel Subasic, 30 minutes on the clock of a World Cup semi-final, July 11, 2018. England 1 Croatia 0. Kane is off centre, Subasic has made himself big, Kane is playing left of the goalkeeper but not enough left.

The shot is blocked, but there is a loose ball. Another shot from a tight angle and Kane hits the post and the rebound doesn’t turn England’s way. Croatia equalizes. Croatia wins. Moments.

July 11, 2021. A European Championship final, a first on a big stage for England in 55 years. The processes worked. The selections, culture, atmosphere and performances were good.

But Jordan Pickford, who has already saved one penalty to give England the lead in the shootout, is less than an inch away from stopping Leonardo Bonucci’s kick with his left hand. Marcus Rashford then shakes Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way but hits the post. A half roll to the right and he’s in. Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka miss. England loses again. Giving moments and taking moments and distorting the results.

December 10, 2022. 2-1 down. France. A World Cup quarter-final. England are the better team because the processes, selections, culture, performance and atmosphere have worked again. A penalty follows and Kane is a great penalty taker. But not this one. It goes by a mile. A great moment to have a bad moment.

I wonder which of those moments can be traced back to Southgate. Where are his fingerprints on the bits that went wrong? If either of these campaigns had ended in the group stages, there would have been investigations. If those important games had been lost 3-0, 4-0, there would be scathing criticism. But his teams lost their sharpest moments against very good or excellent teams.

They may have lost because the distribution of English talent in those places and times has not favored any particular type of midfielder. Or center halves. Or a variety of small moments that Southgate has had a say in, but he doesn’t have a racket in his hand.

When you study what he has brought to England in almost eight years, you see a team and hope reborn from the aftermath of terrible shame. A time when losing to Iceland was more the final straw than the reality check of a bad friendly match.

With the exception of Ben White, players want to be there now. The club cliques have disappeared. So is the fear, loathing and inhibition, taken away by a manager who had none of the medals of Sven Goran Eriksson or Fabio Capello, none of the mileage of Roy Hodgson, none of the legendary stardust of Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan, and he has surpassed them all. The same goes for setting his record against Bobby Robson and Terry Venables and everyone in the line of 12, going back to 1966.

Southgate’s England have gone deep in every tournament. Apart from Robson and Venables, his worst result, a quarter-final, is their best. His best is better than all but Sir Alf Ramsey.

The story of his government is that winning has become a realistic expectation, not just a demand for radio talk and from those voicing their displeasure at paper planes at Wembley. Southgate built that with intelligence and alchemy.

If his tenure has proven anything, it’s that gratitude is the weakest concept in football. Or for some it is, as most would recognize that a generation of great players doesn’t guarantee anything.

Robson had Peter Shilton, Paul Gascoigne, Bryan Robson, Gary Lineker, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and John Barnes in his squad, one of whom lost all three matches at Euro 88.

Venables had David Seaman, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce, Gazza, Paul Ince, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham. Hoddle had the most of them, along with David Beckham, Paul Scholes and a comet called Michael Owen. Sven had a galaxy, Capello had the charm of a wasp, Steve McClaren had a brolly and Roy lost to Iceland when it mattered.

Great players, great and fine managers, and none have drawn the line between success and failure by too many in defining Southgate’s legacy to date.

Maybe he’ll get the trophy that will put an end to those silliest debates once and for all. Maybe he’ll do it carefully, and maybe he’ll spring a surprise by throwing it to the wind. Maybe, just maybe, he knows what he’s doing and is the very best man we’ve seen in this position in a long time. Despite all the love and a show in his honor, this is undoubtedly not fully appreciated.

I hope this is corrected in the next five weeks, that a man whose playing career was defined by a single moment finally has one going his way.

Of course, sports don’t always work that way. Not everyone can stand at a tree stump in Dartmouth and, with the right amount of perseverance, give a speech about how it was all fine.

But in the strange world populated by English managers, no one has come so close in the past half-century, and no one has more earned the right to such an ending.