Future's bright ... but England must address major issues

AFTER successive tournament cycles condensed to 18 months by the Covid pandemic and a winter World Cup, England now face up to a more familiar two-year wait for another crack at ending their trophy drought.

- Dan Kilpatrick and Malik Ouzia

Following Euro 2024 Final agony against Spain in Berlin on Sunday, here are the areas where, whoever the manager is, they must evolve to take the final step in 2026.

FIX THE SYSTEM CONFUSION

As when leaving Qatar at the end of 2022, this does not appear to be a squad in need of drastic overhaul in terms of personnel.

Having called up so many novices for Euro 2024, Gareth Southgate has a wider pool that at any point in his tenure, and many of those shelved at the last minute on form grounds, such as Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Marcus Rashford, will be hopeful of getting back in.

Lessons must be learned from this cycle, though. Contingency planning must be better, so that England do not repeat the errors of having arrived in Germany with no feasible alternative to Luke Shaw or still bemoaning the loss of Kalvin Phillips, despite the potential for trouble on both fronts being clear a long way out.

This summer, it felt Southgate began the tournament with a clear idea of his best 11 players, but without having had chance to look at how they shaped up as a team. There should be more emphasis sooner on crafting roles within a system that works.

For the manager or his successor, however, evolution will be made trickier by England’s relegation to the second tier of the Nations League, which will limit the chances to experiment against top opposition over the coming year.

RIGHT-BACK REFRESH

England’s first-choice defence has hardly changed during Southgate’s tenure, with Shaw the only addition to the Russia 2018 back line until Marc Guehi replaced the injured Harry Maguire this summer.