"I personally thought the performance is a step in the right direction. I completely understand because of the result that is not going to be the reaction."
If Gareth Southgate was referring to the abysmal 4-0 defeat to Hungary in June, then a 1-0 loss at the home of the European champions can be perceived as a step in the right direction. But an England manager to claim that any defeat is a "step in the right direction" is setting his or herself up for wave after wave of vitriol.
Just 15 months ago, the waistcoat wonder led the England men's team to the Euro 2020 final, received a personal good luck message from the late Queen Elizabeth II and was ostensibly agonisingly close to becoming "Sir Gareth" with a continental medal around his neck.
While it was not meant to be at Wembley, optimism was nevertheless the highest that it had been for quite some time. The Three Lions academy had produced an abundance of attacking talent, the team had gone five games at the Euros without conceding, and whispers of World Cup glory started sauntering through the fanbase.
England now have just three months left before Qatar, where Iran, the United States and Wales await them in Group B, but exiting Nations League A with a whimper is not the recipe for success that Southgate and co had expected to be cooking up.
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Five games. Zero wins. One goal scored. England's time in the upper echelons of the Nations League will come to a deserved end with their relegation to League B at the close of the current cycle, and a host of unwanted feats were matched on Italian turf.
That 1-0 loss marks the first time since 2000 that England have gone three consecutive games without a goal, and they are one of only two teams in the entire competition to have gone five games without a non-penalty goal. The other? San Marino.
Not only that, but the Three Lions have also matched a five-game competitive winless streak for the first time since 1992, and a fifth consecutive first half without scoring matched a dismal feat last posted all the way back in 1985.
It is all well and good putting goal after goal past Albania and Andorra for fun - or even making it into double figures against the hapless San Marino - but failure to even score one goal from open play in five Nations League matches is nothing short of cataclysmic for the world's fifth-ranked nation.
Harry Kane's 88th minute penalty against Germany on June 7 remains the only time that the Three Lions have managed to make the net ripple in their doomed Nations League campaign, which will come to a welcome end against Die Mannschaft at Wembley on Monday.
It is worryingly difficult to pinpoint exactly where England's problems lie. As Southgate cut a dejected figure on the San Siro sideline - suited and booted to the nines - my partner jokingly claimed that the banishment of the waistcoat was to blame for the Three Lions' seismic fall.
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She may have been onto something - the clothes make the man, of course - and Southgate selected a crop of XI players no different to what Three Lions supporters have become accustomed to during the 52-year-old's time in control of the reins.
Not a single squad or first XI selection goes by where the #SouthgateOut brigade do not come out in force. It was no different when September's party was named, as the likes of Harry Maguire and Jarrod Bowen - out of form for their clubs - were given the nod over Ben White and James Maddison. Even an injured Jordan Henderson was chosen to replace Kalvin Phillips before Southgate considered calling up the Leicester City playmaker.
Credit where credit is due - Maguire was not the problem against Italy and very rarely is in England colours. The 29-year-old may be a peripheral figure with Man United, but the extra protection afforded by another two centre-backs and defensive-minded players ahead of him makes up for the deficiencies that have seen him lose his place in Erik ten Hag's side.
Eric Dier also demonstrated why he was worthy of a recall to the England squad, but selecting Kyle Walker from the off seemed a questionable call from Southgate, who had only just seen the Manchester City man come back from injury himself.
Rustiness may have come into play for Walker when he allowed Giacomo Raspadori to get the wrong side of him and curl home Italy's winner on Friday night, and it is difficult to justify his selection for the clash with Italy when White and Fikayo Tomori are both pining for international game time.
How England have yearned for a creative spark in the final third of the field, though, as their attacking sequences were passive, predictable and only led to four shots on target in the entire game.
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Compared to their goalscoring performances at previous major tournaments, England's lowest tally at a World Cup since 1950 has been two goals - achieved in the 1950 and 2014 editions - and their worst record at the Euros since 2000 has been four. The Three Lions' first two Nations League campaigns ended with seven strikes flying in on both occasions.
Jude Bellingham was one of the brightest of those in white at San Siro - drawing five fouls, making two key passes and always picking up the ball with purpose - but there is only so much the Borussia Dortmund starboy can do on his own.
Despite holding down the right-wing position at Arsenal and being named England's 2021-22 Player of the Year for his performances in his favoured area, Bukayo Saka reverted to a left-wing back role that he only briefly dabbled in while still a teenager.
The 21-year-old's struggles at San Siro only gave his critics more ammunition, but to throw Saka into that unfamiliar role when Luke Shaw and Kieran Trippier were both waiting in the wings was nothing short of an act of folly.
Furthermore, there was surely no need for Aaron Ramsdale and Dean Henderson to both take up spots on the bench when Ivan Toney could not even make the squad full stop. The Brentford man has done everything in his power to warrant a senior international debut and has demonstrated his ability to score a wide array of goals in the Premier League.
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There is no reason for Toney not to don the England shirt against Germany with nothing on the line, but as Southgate's perennial critics like to point out, the former Middlesbrough boss has a perceived tendency to stick with tried-and-tested players no matter how they are performing at club level.
In the case of Trent Alexander-Arnold, that may not be entirely true, as the Liverpool man has stuck out like a sore thumb in the Reds' poor start to the season, but he can sleep easy in the knowledge that he is almost guaranteed weekly starts for Liverpool.
England and their plethora of right-back options is a different story, though, especially with Southgate partial to a wing-back system, which Alexander-Arnold is not all that familiar with. Statistics from Transfermarkt show that Alexander-Arnold has only been utilised in that role four times for Liverpool and seven times for England - one of which saw him come up with a hat-trick of assists in the 10-0 win over San Marino.
When Phil Foden can initiate his usual tricks in the half-spaces, the Manchester City youngster is incredibly difficult to quell, but such performances have been reserved purely for Pep Guardiola's slick Manchester City machine. Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho have turned up the heat at club level this term, but the former missed out on selection this month through injury while Sancho was overlooked entirely.
After Monday's clash with Germany, Southgate has no more opportunities to watch his side in competitive action before Qatar. This golden generation of England players cannot pass through the peak of their careers without getting their hands on an international trophy, and Southgate will have a huge part to play in that.
If a player is demonstrating their class at a particular position for their club and making themselves undroppable for England, Southgate must find a way to get them into that position rather than testing them in a different area of the field and hoping that everything will work out okay.
Accommodating an out-and-out number 10 would do the Three Lions no harm either, but should England once again fail to deliver when it matters on the biggest stage, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino could be among those threatening Southgate's hitherto unthreatened time in charge.
Ben Knapton
