Euro 2024: Dysfunction may be England manager Gareth Southgate's best hope

England reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament for a fourth consecutive time under manager Gareth Southgate, but Sunday's 2-1 win over Slovakia owed more to good fortune than design. A moment of individual brilliance by Jude Bellingham and a Harry Kane header came in a two-minute spell that straddled the end of the 90-minute regulation and the start of extra time. It was England's best period in 120-plus minutes. Bellingham, England's gun player, and Kane, the Three Lions' talisman, otherwise had games to forget. They were by no means alone in that department, and those who tagged this England team as favourites to win Euro 2024 are now conspicuous by their absence. Four games in and the only takeaway is that England are simply not good enough. There are reasons for that and plenty of column inches will be dedicated between now and Saturday's showdown against Switzerland in highlighting the deficiencies and disconnect. Manager Gareth Southgate will be the main target, and it's hard to make a case for his defence after performances so far. The Trent-Alexander Arnold experiment has failed, jettisoning experienced players – 12 of this England squad are playing at their first senior tournament – looks questionable and a seeming inability to make changes when they are needed most has given his critics plenty of ammunition. Football is notoriously fickle. The goodwill Southgate built early on in his tenure has now dissipated. Southgate has led England to 50 per cent of all their major semi-final and final appearances and was within a penalty kick of claiming only a second trophy for the nation at Euro 2020. But to lay all the blame for England's ills on Southgate overlooks the failure of the players on the pitch. Save for the first 45 minutes in their opening game against Serbia, England have looked ponderous on the ball, lifeless off it. The forwards have all the energy and movement of an asthmatic ant. Pundits were incandescent at Southgate's delay in making changes and a reluctance to switch things up against Slovakia after falling behind to a Ivan Schranz effort. The first change, midway through the second half when the Slovaks had already made three of their own, was out of necessity following an injury to Kieran Trippier. It set in motion a merry-go-round to fill a position that has become England's Achilles heel, but one that could offer them license to experiment and galvanize a team in desperate need of it. In all five players, for different lengths of time and with varying degrees of success, occupied the left-back berth. Trippier started before injury curtailed his involvement. Bukayo Saka, who made it painfully clear pre-match he'd rather sit on the bench than operate there, was shunted back from his role wide on the right wing before substitutes Eberechi Eze, Ivan Toney and Ezra Konza took turns on patrol. More by luck than judgement, the chaos breathed a much-needed nervous energy into a lifeless team. The malaise, in some aspects, emboldened England to adopt a new approach. Bellingham's spectacular overhead kick on 95 minutes came courtesy of a flick on from a throw-in from the right but the build-up owed much to Eze's willingness to operate as a one-man flank on the left. Toney's flick on from a mis-hit Eze shot fell invitingly for Kane to head home to seal the comeback. It's by no means a strategy to win a major tournament, but dysfunction could be England's best hope of finding a winning formula. Order has failed, let chaos reign. “All along the players that have come into the games have had a big impact, they’ve been ready, they’ve trained well, and all of the guys that came on played important roles either in creating the goals, steadying the ship," Southgate said. “We want to be better. I’m not going to hide from that, but the spirit and the character was there for everybody to see, and we’re still in there fighting.” At least one change will be forced on Southgate with defender Marc Guehi suspended after picking up his second yellow card of the tournament. Konza or Lewis Dunk are the main contenders to get the call, but Southgate could do worse than revert to a formula that served him so well at the 2018 World Cup in Russia when configuring his defence. Back then Southgate deployed a three-man defence with Kyle Walker on the right side of the defence with Trippier ahead of him at wing-back. With Trippier an injury doubt, Southgate could turn to Alexander-Arnold with either Saka or Eze operating on the left. The change offers a new look and calls on the ability of Alexander-Arnold, England's best passer, to operate in a role he is more familiar with and the energy of Eze to offer a threat down the left. No matter the formation, Southgate has to find a place for Cole Palmer to offer incision to England's attack. Before setting off for Germany, Southgate showed his squad a presentation of England's 1966 World Cup winners, highlighting the team's difficulties before going on to win what remains the country's only major trophy. England will need to invoke the same spirit that carried Sir Alf Ramsey's team if they are to have any chance of challenging for a second.

Euro 2024: Dysfunction may be England manager Gareth Southgate's best hope

Southgate has been criticised for not making changes to his team, but the chaos against Slovakia offers glimmer of hope that Three Lions have stumbled upon a winning formula