Ukraine v England: Gareth Southgate's Three Lions need evolution, not continuity, to progress

England will qualify for next summer's European Championship, and the process will be hastened along by a victory over Ukraine in Wroclaw in Saturday’s first game of a season which ends there.

Halfway through, the Three Lions are not just the only unbeaten side in a group two sides qualify from, but a 100 per cent team.

So Southgate must think beyond simply getting to Germany, and about what to do when he gets there.

The best teams never stand still, and England aspire to be one of them. But more than that, there are signs some stalwarts could be falling by the wayside.

Jordan Henderson is playing Saudi Pro League football this season. For all the money the kingdom has thrown at footballing talent over the past few months, it cannot make up the depth of an elite domestic league in one transfer window, especially with only four teams sharing it.

Henderson pleasantly surprised at the last World Cup, but Southgate must start thinking about what to do if a man who turns 34 in June cannot repeat the trick.

At least he is playing.

Kalvin Phillips has had six minutes of football at Manchester City this season. Pep Guardiola has specialised in slow-burning careers at Eastlands, but one wonders if the Leeds-born midfielder he fat-shamed after the last World Cup will ever be one.

If Guardiola cannot offer it, Phillips has only one transfer window to get regular football elsewhere.

Even with Manchester United defenders dropping like flies, Harry Maguire's prospects look as bleak. He had 23 minutes as the Red Devils' fourth-choice centre-back at Arsenal but the man from Sheffield is clearly not Erik ten Hag's cup of tea.

Like Henderson and Phillips, he is Southgate's, owing his selection partly to the quality of his previous national service, partly to the lack of alternatives in a country which seems to have got much better at churning out technically-brilliant teenagers – witness England's European Under-21 Championship win in the summer – but is still struggling to find them top-division opportunities (as shown by the lack of Premier League starts between that team).

And that is before injuries.

First-choice left-back Luke Shaw and Barnsley-born central defender John Stones are injured, making the decision over Maguire harder still. It is another reminder England need to find back-up players their manager can believe in.

But it is not simply a case of finding players as good as what they have already – not when England's only major trophy is so old the World Cup has been updated since.

Experimentation is essential at the back and given England's group position, the positives of trialling former Brighton and Hove Albion central defensive pairing Lewis Dunk and Levi Colwill in Poland in a game with something to play for might outweigh the risks. Southgate would certainly learn more on Saturday than in Tuesday's friendly in Scotland, no doubt diluted by a plethora of pull-outs on both sides.

Colwill showed what an exciting talent he was on loan at Huddersfield Town in 2021-22, and reinforced it on loan at Brighton last season, then in the Under-21 Championship. Now a Chelsea regular, it feels like his time on the left-hand side of defence, giving more pace to a back four which relies heavily on Sheffielder Kyle Walker for it.

Trent Alexander-Arnold offered a potentially exciting new option to a fairly functional midfield in June, but an injury means the experiment with the Liverpool right-back will have to wait until October at least.

He can at least take encouragement that a manager who has not always seemed sold on him invited the Merseysider and Shaw to a pre-match team meeting. He looks part of the gang – a gang it is hard to get out of but once you do, hard to get back in. Just ask Raheem Sterling, so long a Southgate favourite but overlooked despite an excellent start to Chelsea's season because his manager – not unreasonably – could not make a case for anyone to drop out.

A No 10 would add a little stardust but Southgate prefers a more clear-cut 4-3-3. Could Jude Bellingham's Real Madrid form change his mind?

Bellingham is a fine box-to-box midfielder but has been playing further forward in Madrid. Five goals in his first four games are surely worth thinking about.

Phil Foden is playing more centrally and although James Maddison has started well as a Three Lions winger, his fast start at Tottenham Hotspur has also been from the hole.

Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze can add pizzazz and freshness from any position behind Harry Kane.

It would seem a waste not to at least look into the possibilities.

The perennial question of who understudies Kane remains and former Leeds United loanee Eddie Nketiah will be the latest to audition, even if it might only be on the St George's Park training pitch.

This is a squad whose personnel is slowly changing without feeling much different. The old formula has taken Southgate a long way but if Germany is to be his last hurrah as England manager, it would be nice to take the team up one last level.