England's Southgate tight-lipped on potential changes against Slovenia

COLOGNE, Germany : England manager Gareth Southgate would not divulge whether he planned to make changes for Tuesday's game against Slovenia at the European Championship amid media reports of a midfield shake-up, instead keeping his cards close to his chest.

While England top Group C on four points and have all but locked up a last-16 berth, Southgate's men are eager for a decisive win after their sputtering start and there has been speculation that Conor Gallagher will start in place of Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield.

"Well, I'm clearly not going to go into detail when the opposition are listening," Southgate told reporters on Monday. "I can sit here and talk as much as I like but it's irrelevant until we go onto the pitch and perform.

"Of course, it's important to answer the (personnel and tactical) questions as thoroughly as I can. But ultimately, I'm going to be judged on the way the team play and I understand that and I'm comfortable with that."

Much of the criticism levelled at England has been around Southgate's "experiment" of slotting richly talented Liverpool defender Alexander-Arnold alongside Declan Rice in midfield.

Southgate, who is not known for making hasty changes, sent Gallagher on in place of Alexander-Arnold nine minutes into the second half of their ragged 1-1 draw with Denmark last time out. But the 25-year-old was far from the squad's only issue.

"We're very clear on where we need to be better," Southgate said. "We haven't hidden from that ... so the route forward was pretty simple to highlight."

When asked for his perception of troubles in midfield, Rice said the effort cannot be faulted.

"I've seen players that have given everything even though it hasn't gone the way we've wanted to so far," he