Hold your nose for the honking takes and browse social media during an England game. You’ll see thousands – literally thousands – of identical posts about Gareth Southgate being “too negative”, “holding the team back” and “always picking his favourites”.
Yet England will go into a major tournament this summer as one of the bookmakers’ favourites, alongside Didier Deschamps’ France, with probably their most aggressive system in generations and a starting XI that doesn’t seem finalised.
