Unbalanced and undercooked: can England overcome defensive worries? | David Hytner
Team start Euros with fill-in left-back, barely tested centre-half pairing and questions over various players’ readiness
The senior centre-half is out. His partner has had an uneven season. There is no specialist left-back. Fitness problems are a part of the mix. And so is balance. It is not difficult to see why Gareth Southgate has worried and, as England count down to their Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday night, why he surely still does in those moments when the pressure and sheer scale of it all prods at his insides.
The manager has heard the theory. His team will sweep to the final in Berlin because of how blessed he is with attacking options; the variety of them, the depth, which have allowed him to omit Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Marcus Rashford; to phase out Raheem Sterling. It does not seem to matter that Southgate can count on only two players who have scored more than four goals for England – Harry Kane (63), Bukayo Saka (11).
