In the days since England’s unnerving 1-1 draw with Denmark, Gareth Southgate and his players have taken care to hit the right notes with a series of honest, upbeat and defiant responses to the poverty of their performance in Frankfurt.
Immediately after the game, Southgate admitted England “have to play better”, while Harry Kane acknowledged their shortcomings “with and without the ball”.
On Sunday, the captain was back in front of the media at the squad’s base, where he delivered a masterclass in firefighting with a measured but punchy address lasting nearly 45 minutes, urging fans to stay calm, hitting back at Gary Lineker and predicting an improved display against Slovenia tonight.
Then, on the eve of the match here in Cologne, it was the turn of Declan Rice, another member of England’s ‘leadership group’, to have his say.
Rice — infectious in his enthusiasm — laughed off suggestions the players are tired and promised a more energetic performance.
“You’ll see a team that wants to be on the front-foot and wants to press Slovenia high up the pitch,” he said.
“Talking a good game is one thing and the question is whether enough has changed to not only win, but win well.”
It has all sounded very encouraging and, listening to Kane and Rice, who are both engaging talkers in their own right, it has been easy to wonder if the reaction to Denmark was a little hysterical, after all. If England beat Slovenia, they will qualify for the last-16 as group winners and go into what appears to be the kinder half of the draw, away from Germany, Spain and Portugal, and possibly France.
And, as Rice pointed out, a resounding win would consign the first two games to history and transform the outlook for England at Euro 2024.
“That is what we are all looking forward to doing, going out there and putting the last game behind us,” he said.
Talking a good game is one thing, however, and the question is whether enough has changed since Thursday for Southgate’s side to not only win, but win well.
After the alarming looseness of their football against Serbia and Denmark, there is pressure on England to put in a significantly improved display at the RheinEnergie Stadion.
A 1-0 slog — in the vein of their final group game against the Czech Republic at Euro 2020 — will do little to dampen the discourse or increase confidence in the camp. England need, at the very least, to have more control and balance with the ball and more energy and coherence without it. Really, they need a statement.
“What we’ve talked about is performance,” Southgate said. “We know that the results have put us in a strong position, but we want to play better as a team.”
The problem is that just four days have passed since the shambolic showing against the Danes, and so much about England’s approach needs to change.
Southgate is set to abandon his experiment with Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, with Conor Gallagher expected to start next to Rice. Gallagher is the best presser in the squad and will add energy to the team, but will he help England to have more control in possession?
Anthony Gordon, whose high-profile backers include Jamie Carragher and Alan Shearer, would potentially provide balance to a narrow left flank — which will again be missing Luke Shaw — while the inclusion of Adam Wharton or Kobbie Mainoo would likely help England to keep the ball. Southgate, though, is wary of making wholesale changes.
“The big risk is you have a knee-jerk reaction and you move away from things that are going well,” he said. “You can rip everything up and go in a completely different direction, but we don’t want to lose what’s going well. Your best players are still your best players.
“We might not have functioned as a team as we would have liked, but we shouldn’t be throwing everything out of the window.”
There is also the question of whether England’s fitness levels have sufficiently improved to follow through with a more aggressive, assertive game-plan.
Kane looked sluggish against Denmark, prompting criticism from Lineker, but he was not alone. Southgate says his players are “making progress” fitness-wise, but that will be put to the test, particularly given the heat here.
The manager should be confident that England can return to winning ways, but has enough changed for them to be, in Rice’s words, “the team we are trying to be” tonight?
That remains to be seen and, for all the positive talk, there is only one way for England to truly change the narrative and re-establish themselves among the favourites, as Southgate acknowledged.
“Whatever I say is fairly irrelevant,” the manager said. “Our performance will have to speak for itself. We have to go and produce it on the pitch. I am expecting we will do that.”
