BIG NAMES DON'T ALWAYS WIN BIG GAMES

Southgate's blind loyalty to star players... like England in the past... cost him in the end.... a ruthless approach is needed if the Lions are ever going to bring it home

- ANDY DUNN

ACCORDING to Gareth Southgate late on Sunday night, he was about to replace Jude Bellingham with Conor Gallagher when substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored Spain's winner.

It would have been 10 minutes too late. Bellingham did set up Cole Palmer's 73rd-minute strike but, from that moment on, he was a passenger.

Southgate did have the stomach to take off Harry Kane just after the hour mark but, again, that decision was at least 10 minutes too late.

Okay, England were holding the tournament's best team at half-timebut a bold coach would have replaced Kane at the interval. Apart from the yellow card he collected, the England captain had been a completely incidental figure in the first half.

He was not going to suddenly sprout wings in the second.

There is a balance between having trust in your leaders and being in thrall to big names... and whoever is in charge of England at the next tournament - World Cup 2026 - needs to find it, if the wait for a trophy is to end.