Summer must be the start and not an end for Gareth Southgate’s England

There will be reminders aplenty of Russia at Wembley. The celebratory mood of appreciation prior to kick-off among a sell-out crowd will reflect the summer’s unexpected success and England’s best tourists in 28 years are sure to be given a rapturous welcome.

The captain, Harry Kane, is to be presented with the tournament’s golden boot from his manager on the touchline before trotting off to the centre-circle for the pre-match coin toss wearing a shimmering golden pair of his own. Yet, from the moment the Uefa Nations League campaign commences against Spain, a line will be drawn under those exploits. Gareth Southgate has welcomed raised expectations, and the makeup of the team he sends out will be instantly recognisable from those giddy nights in June and July, but he is now seeking evidence this group is capable of progression.

The summer must be the start and not, as it was in 1990, the pinnacle of a generation’s achievements. “It’s a good moment to build on what we’ve done, and that’s how we should view it,” he said. “When we look back at the last time we reached the World Cup semi-finals, the next four years weren’t great. That’s the challenge I’ve spoken about with the players.

“The summer was enjoyable for everybody, but that’s done now. Our focus has to be how we get better. We need to get better to be able to compete at the highest level, with the best teams in the world. Maybe we’re not as far away as we thought we were two years ago, after we’d gone out in the group stage at the 2014 World Cup and so disappointingly at the Euros. We’ve shown we can be competitive against anybody. We’ve gained respect abroad but that only lasts into your next matches. So the next matches are the most important.”

In that respect Spain, now under the stewardship of Luis Enrique, feel ideal opponents: under-achievers at the finals but a side still capable of playing the expansive style which claimed major honours at the turn of the decade, and a team who carry a weighty reputation. Overcoming them in a competitive fixture, even while confusion still reigns over the intricacies of the Nations League, would be a psychological fillip and reinforce the sense that this is a team whose future can be brilliant.

Southgate has already achieved plenty over a tenure which has yet to stretch to two full years. That bond between team and supporters has been repaired. He has integrated exciting young talents into the set-up. Everything about the World Cup restored pride and purpose. Yet defeating an elite opponent would still feel like uncharted territory. He admitted England’s record against the world’s elite was “non-existent” stretching back to the 1970s, citing Sapporo in 2002 and that group game victory over a poor Argentina team as the exception which proves the rule.

He has overseen 10 games against teams ranked in Fifa’s top 20 and not won any of them in normal time. Belgium beat his side twice in Russia, even if the competitive edge had been blunted in both fixtures. Croatia, initially overpowered, were permitted to recover at the Luzhniki before grinding the English down to claim their semi-final win in extra-time. The events of that evening brought greater scrutiny on Southgate’s use of substitutions, or his players’ ability to react to relinquishing a stranglehold of a game. How, then, will they cope against Spain under concerted pressure, or when starved of the ball? Will they panic, as they did at times in the second half against Croatia, and shed their close-passing game for something more direct and hopeful?

The manager watched a re-run of the semi-final on Thursday at St George’s Park, with the players encouraged to voice their opinions both on things England had done well and where they had permitted things to slip. “We also spoke about how we want to develop without the ball,” said Southgate. “That’s the key element, technically: how we can improve as a team in terms of possession, being braver in our positioning and finding solutions with the ball, and how we press and are a bit more aggressive without the ball. We put little bits of footage up, some stills, some stats around a couple of the games.”

Training this week has attempted to address those issues but now his players must combat Isco and Marco Asensio, Saúl and Álvaro Morata, or pierce a defence built around Sergio Ramos and David de Gea, and all in a competitive fixture rather than a prestige friendly. That task still feels daunting. Southgate has come close against these opponents before, his selection contriving to shed a 2-0 lead held after 89 minutes in November 2016. Of the 18 players who took to the field for England that night, only six will be involved on Saturday, which demonstrates the pace of evolution since the manager, having qualified for the World Cup, has had the leeway to develop his team’s style.

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The Nations League is another route to silverware but Southgate still has one eye on Euro 2020. “We’re two years, but only 20 matches, from the European Championship,” he added. “It’s about what we do next. We should always be reviewing how we play, looking at how to improve in the build-up, or create more chances, or work better with and without the ball.” Wembley is the stage for the next step in this team’s development. The summer surpassed expectations. Now Southgate is seeking to kick on.

Nations League: latest results and fixtures