England v Serbia Reaction: What we learned from a precious but flawed win

• Protecting leads a problem

• Foden sacrificed on the left

• Is Kane injured?

• Use Betfair's Safer Gambling Tools at Euro 2024

England kicked off their Euro 2024 campaign with a precious win and three points on Sunday evening, but that is anything but the whole story.

With a bright opening 20 minutes giving way to toil and passivity - not to mention struggling with a system devoid of structure on occasion - the general mood is one of fret for the bigger challenges to come.

One of which is Denmark this week, a team ranked 12 places higher than Serbia. A team that has caused England all manner of problems in the recent past.

It is hoped that lessons will have been learnt from the avoidable grind at Gelsenkirchen, prioritizing these four issues below.

Caution takes hold once again

It's a familiar and somewhat depressing tale. England gain an advantage from playing fluid, semi-adventurous football only to then prematurely attempt to shut up shop. Sometimes it's to their cost. Always it raises the blood pressure of a nervously watching nation.

For the opening period against Serbia, Gareth Southgate's men looked the business, starving their opposition of the ball and patiently carving out opportunities, particularly down the right.

Only then the pre-match favourites scored, and everything changed.

Serbia went man-for-man. The Three Lions meanwhile retreated, reverting to route one when encountering routine pressure, and appearing for all the world like they were holding onto a slender lead against the Brazil of Pele and Jairzinho.

Half an hour in, England boasted 71 per cent of the possession. That plummeted to 44% thereafter.

Southgate's conservative nature when preserving a lead has hindered his team before and will do so again. On this occasion it resulted in both teams combining for the fewest number of shots in a Euro game since 1980.

Lack of midfield depth

As one wag on social media put it, if Conor Gallagher is the answer, what is the question?

There was nothing wrong per se with the Chelsea man's 25 minutes. He drew three fouls that helped to stall Serbian momentum and injected more energy into England's engine room. No, Gallagher was fine, it was what he represented that concerned.

Because having ceded the impetus and lost some shape and structure, Southgate's only options in the middle of the park was to deploy one of two youngsters, with a combined 3245 minutes of Premier League experience, or a player whose primary attribute is endeavour.

That doesn't bode well should the Three Lions find themselves a goal down with 20 to go against an Italy or Germany in the knock-outs.

There is a lot of a discussion today about the merits or otherwise of Trent Alexander-Arnold. The more troublesome talking point is England's lack of game-altering alternatives behind their front four.

The Phil and Trent conundrums

The two players who most notably underperformed on Sunday evening were both stationed away from their best positions. It's almost as if one informs the other.

Or at least that is partly true and examining the extent of that truth is key to determining whether England have a big problem with Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold going forward.

Starting with the Liverpool star, it was hardly a disastrous performance but certainly there was cause for alarm. None of his crosses were completed. He lost the majority of his ground duels. He surrendered possession in a dangerous area.

Trent has started in midfield in fewer than 2% of his 320 appearances for Liverpool and at times against Serbia that showed.

Yet we should not easily forget how impactful he was against Bosnia just a fortnight ago. Then, he accrued five key passes, scored, and pinged seven long balls to feet.

As for Foden, unquestionably something special is sacrificed when he is shoehorned onto the left. Last season was a nadir for the midfielder and not coincidentally he made 16 starts out there for Manchester City in 22 outings.

But again, he has previously shown he can excel on the left for his country, a superb display in Qatar '22 in helping to demolish Wales springing to mind.

Perhaps it's wise to pause all hysteria, and take a wait and see approach in both cases, with Denmark on Thursday promising more definitive answers.

It's pertinent incidentally that Luke Shaw is tipped to return for that one. His overlapping will assist Foden immeasurably.

A touch worried about Kane

Harry Kane got the Erling Haaland treatment on Monday, with emphasis placed on his scant number of touches.

Just two in the first-half led to widespread hand-wringing though for the most part his lack of involvement was excused, with England in the ascendency. The prolific forward was merely occupying Nikola Milenkovic and affording greater space for Jude Bellingham et al to roam into. The goal perfectly illustrates this.

When the Three Lions' record goal-scorer remained isolated in the second period however the concern deepened.

Southgate attributed his striker's peripheral performance to the 'flow of the game' and it's highly doubtful he would have instructed his main goal-source to almost exclusively inhabit the centre-circle, barely dropping deep and hardly venturing into the box. We can therefore presumably expect a return to the norm vs Denmark later this week.

In the meantime, Kane has drifted out to 10/11 to finish the tournament as England's top goalscorer. Now might be a good time to take advantage of that.

Now read Mark's Portugal v Czechia preview here!