England look more feeble than at any other point in the age of Southgate

Well, it is a pretty weird World Cup anyway. Can we asterisk this thing? Just a thought, but is it actually too late to boycott? Norway did the T-shirts. Good optics.

For Gareth Southgate and England this was another cowed and pallid step towards Qatar 2022. What is the perfect prep for these four-yearly moments of destiny anyway? How about not scoring a goal from open play for almost 500 minutes? How about three defeats in five games, topped by a 1-0 here against a so-so Italy? How about getting relegated?

It would at least be hard to accuse Southgate’s team of peaking too early, of risking a loss of momentum, of doing the robot prematurely in front of Prince William. Six years into the age of Gareth, it has to be said this is the most feeble, the most incoherent this team has ever looked.

At the end Southgate went to applaud the England fans high in the gods. In return he was booed, a booing that seemed to swell and wax as he walked along clapping back, all alone in his patch of green. You who turn the wheel and look to windward. Remember Southgate, who was once The One.

Germany on Monday, it has to be said, could get ugly.

And is this thing really done? The players are still good, the manager has so much credit. The only real positive was the way the players kept running. At the final whistle Jude Bellingham sunk to the turf and just stayed there looking crumpled. Bellingham had barely stopped for 90 minutes, out there oddly exposed in a midfield that always seemed to be whirling about in too much space.

England found a system here that made an elegant, technical, imposing midfielder look like a man being chased around a car park by a swarm of bees. But still, nobody gave up or sulked or looked ok with this. That’s