World Cup 2018: 5 reasons why England's recently employed back-three system is doomed to fail in Russia

#1 Lack of goals

Raheem Sterling

The 23 players Gareth Southgate has selected for England's World Cup squad have so far scored a combined 57 goals wearing the colours of their national team. For context, French duo Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud have 51 between the two of them.

This won't be an issue for the Three Lions if Harry Kane - who is responsible for 13 of them - has the sort of tournament fans expect him to, but should he suffer a dip of form or (heaven forbid) an injury, they could find themselves in trouble.

Despite being prolific at club level, neither Dele Alli nor Raheem Sterling are consistent goal scorers for England. So far, they've only found the net four times between them, and those have largely come against subpar opposition.

From the bench, Southgate can call upon striker duo Jamie Vardy and Marcus Rashford, but there is a still a serious shortage of goal power from other areas of the pitch, particularly the midfield.

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