Opinions differed as the post-mortem of England’s Euro 2020 final defeat was being done.

Gary Lineker, the former England striker turned BBC presenter, tweeted: “I think going forward England have to find a way of being more attack-minded. Braver in possession and throwing more people forward. We have the forward talent to scare teams, at present we seem scared ourselves to release that talent.”

Rio Ferdinand echoed Lineker. “I thought that we could have been more positive in this game. You look at (Roberto) Mancini, they go in at halftime, they adjust things and they come out and they dominate possession.”

But Gary Neville was supportive of Southgate. “I think Gareth knew he had to play a certain way to get to the final. This is not the time to be criticising tactics and substitutions,” he said.