McNulty Q&A: 'Major tournaments are not the time for experimentation'

BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty has been answering readers' questions on all things England before their final Euro 2024 group match against Slovenia on Tuesday.

Terry asked: It looks like Trent Alexander-Arnold will be the fall guy, but surely the problem was the lack of movement and running into space in front of him? If that changes then you can bet Trent will drop it on a plate for them eventually.

Phil answered: I felt sorry for Trent Alexander-Arnold. It wasn't working with him in midfield, anyone could see that, but I felt he was put in a difficult position. I am just not sure he is a natural central midfielder with all that entails, but he was never really given the chance to find out.

I think as much of this, if not more, is on the manager Gareth Southgate.

He talked about it being an "experiment" but major tournaments are not the time for experimentation. He had plenty of time to work on this before Euro 2024 but it was not tried out and you cannot persist with experiments at major tournaments if they are not working. You have to end them very quickly if that's the case.

The time for fine tuning, for finding out whether it would work on not, was before Euro 2024 and that chance was not taken.

Read more of the Q&A with McNulty, plus the rest of the day's football news