Have people forgotten the pre-Southgate tournament record across a long period – including defeat by Iceland?

Time for an excursion. Time for Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland to live a little. The group stage’s done, the draw has opened up, the path to the final in Berlin is kind. Clearly, it’s time for them to step outside England’s secluded Blankenhain base, check in with the local tourist board and find out what the state of Thuringia has to offer.

A trip to the nearby city of Weimar is one option. But the bigger city of Erfurt, home to England’s press pack during Euro 2024, also has its charms. Here we find a medieval tour, quite a bit about the outspoken 16th-century monk Martin Luther and, continuing with the religious vibe, the amazing spectacle of Erfurt’s Old Synagogue, an 11th-century site that somehow avoided destruction by the Nazis.

The 20-year-old is England’s future but he is not playing like someone who can help them in the present at Euro 2024

Your best players are still your best players. Your best team is not necessarily the one with all the best players on the pitch. Unfortunately England are in that place again. Much like Sven-Göran Eriksson failing to utilise Michael Carrick at the 2006 World Cup, or Roy Hodgson putting Wayne Rooney in his midfield at Euro 2016, Gareth Southgate has fallen into a familiar trap. His tactics are leaden, his starting XI is unbalanced and one of his biggest mistakes – being seduced into fitting too many similar types into a one-paced attack – has made England by far the hardest team to watch at Euro 2024.

The good news, though, is that there is time to fix England before their last-16 tie in Gelsenkirchen. Nothing drastic needs to be done. A few tweaks could easily help England to build on their slight improvement in the second half of their draw with Slovenia. The question is whether Southgate is bold enough to make them.