Southgate has to let Three Lions s out of their cag ge

YOU only get so many opportunities to win a major tournament and Gareth Southgate has blown two – he may not get a third chance.

Four years ago the World Cup was there for the taking. They had Croatia on their knees in the semi-final and couldn’t finish them off.

Fast forward to last year’s Euros and playing Italy at home, at Wembley, to win a major competition, and again they blew it. They paid the price for Gareth Southgate’s caution.

Now that wouldn’t be a criticism per se. I am a defensive man who likes teams to be well organised and set up defensively at times.

But the whole point about England is the array of attacking potential they are blessed to possess and the bitter reality is that Southgate doesn’t know how to get the best out of them.

Croatia in 2018 were terrified of England’s pace,p yet it was England who o backed off.

And that – and what happened last summe r– will be in the back of Southgate’s and the players’ minds.

Southgate has to get t at least four of his attackers into his side and stick with that, bu ut his approach won’t ch hange.

The fact is only Fran nce and Brazil can match England for firepower r but they give teams a chan nce when they don’t need to because of the way the ey play – and it will be the eir downfall.

If they win the group p they’ll get to the quart terfinals but it’ll be tough h to beat France.

I don’t see them as w winners and I don’t want to pu ut it all down to the manager, but he hasn’t helped them in n the past and I don’t see hi im doing so now.