Gareth Southgate admitted that the gamble to deploy Trent Alexander-Arnold as a central midfielder hasn’t paid off.
Alexander-Arnold was hooked after just 53 minutes after struggling to cope in his new position for the second successive Euro group game as England limped to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Denmark. It now remains to be seen whether Southgate sticks with the Liverpool defender after Chelsea ’s Conor Gallagher added some energy to the Three Lions team after replacing Alexander-Arnold.
Southgate said: “We have been trying to find a solution in midfield for seven or eight years. If we hadn't had Declan Rice, I don't know where we'd have been.
“Unfortunately, Kalvin (Phillips) wasn’t a possible for us for this tournament and Hendo ( Jordan Henderson ) the same, so we're trying to find something different.
“Some of that has worked, some of that hasn't worked so well - but over the years that's been a consistent problem we've tried to find the best way of solving and we've got to do that in the coming weeks as well.
New Year resolutions you should make for 2023 based on your star sign“One of our biggest problems was we weren’t pressing well enough as a team, so Trent had all sorts of problems to solve without the ball - and most of the time he did really, really well.
“But clearly you're going to see different pictures when you’re in there every week. He’s had moments where he's played the passes that we thought he could. I understand, you're always going to ask me about individuals, but the team didn't function today. That's my responsibility.”
Skipper Harry Kane was also substituted by Southgate for the first time in two-and-a-half years - despite becoming England’s record tournament goalscorer with a close-range strike that put England ahead in the 18th minute. His strike-partners Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka were replaced at the same time.
Asked whether Kane is still struggling for fitness after suffering a back injury late in the season with Bayern Munich, the England boss said: “We just felt that our frontline put a lot of work into the game the other day (against Serbia). Harry has only had one 90 minutes in the last five or six weeks, so the other night took a lot out of him.
“We could have stayed with it, but we thought to get speed in the frontline at that moment, to get energy to be able to press was important. So, that was the decision we took with all of the substitutes basically.
“We played more with a 10 today and that meant that when Kane was coming low, we had players running past him and having a little bit more contact with him. We also pressed slightly differently, which meant that Foden was starting a little bit more in-field.
“But our press wasn't intense enough and it meant that our backline had a problem with the players dropping either side of our pivots. That's something that has to be better. We know with the profile of players that we've got, we don't feel the way to press is really high up the pitch.
“I don't think that's the physical level of the team at the moment. But we've got to find a way of being more compact and more difficult to play against.”
Southgate accepts that he has an issue with the balance of his team. Foden appears unsure of the role he is being asked to play on the left after the England manager opted to use Jude Bellingham as a No.10 and Saka on the right.
And Luke Shaw's continuing absence means Kieran Trippier is operating out of position at left-back. Southgate said: “It’s clear in terms of the balance of the team that we don't have our best left-back available, so that denies you the opportunity for that balance.
Covid virus can be cut to pieces by molecular 'scissors' in drugs to protect us"Tripps has done an incredible job for the team. His spirit, his organisation, his desire have helped us get over the line in the last two games. So, that's in no way a criticism of him, but it's going to be different with a right-footer than a left."