UEFA Nations League: 3 reasons why England lost to the Netherlands

#3 England lacked control in the midfield areas

England lacked the midfield options that Harry Winks would've provided

In terms of the game itself, despite being relatively even, once again it felt like England were lacking options in central midfield. The second half, in particular, was dominated by the Barcelona-bound Frenkie de Jong and too many times England’s defenders were left without options due to the positioning of deeper midfield duo Fabian Delph and Declan Rice.

Ross Barkley – terrible error aside – performed admirably as an attacking outlet, but just as they did in last summer’s World Cup against Croatia and Belgium, Southgate’s side simply lacked control from the middle. For me that comes down to a selection issue; perhaps Jordan Henderson could’ve done more than Delph, but the player who would’ve offered the most in that position was left at home.

Southgate’s explanation that Tottenham’s Harry Winks hadn’t played enough to warrant being kept in the squad did make sense to an extent, but there’s no denying that a player of his passing ability would’ve made a huge difference tonight – and more to the point, Winks didn’t look at all off the pace in Saturday’s Champions League final despite spending time on the shelf following groin surgery.

To be able to really dominate games like tonight’s, England need better outlets from the centre – particularly if they want to continue to play out from the back. They need someone to be able to collect the ball from the defence and move it forward at pace – and right now that man is Winks, who was key to England’s victory in Spain last October and was also a key part of Tottenham’s run to the Champions League final.

Simply put, England cannot afford to leave him out next time.