Time for England’s decorated players to step out of the dark and show their true colours, writes IAN LADYMAN… this England squad contains serial winners, but where have they been?

If there was a team with the best players in this tournament, no English name would come close. That is just one of many things that must change if England are to reach the final of Euro 2024.

Gareth Southgate, the England manager, has not been coping well with three weeks here in Germany. He seemed stuck for ideas and inspiration at times. That is not his habit, but that was clear from the start.

But it is not Southgate who will decide England’s fate over the next nine days. At international level, managers are facilitators. Their impact is not as great as at club level.

To progress beyond the quarter-final against Switzerland on Saturday at the Merkur Spiel-Arena, England’s players must show their true colours and not the shadows that have somehow managed to slip through the group stage and into the last 16.

This English side is a serial winner. It has a current Champions League winner in Jude Bellingham. This time last year, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Phil Foden were three-time winners with Manchester City. Foden was twice Premier League Player of the Year last season.

But where have they been? Suffocated by pressure and expectation? Unlikely. They should be used to it. Tired after long domestic seasons? Possibly. England’s winter break, such as it was, seems to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived, much to Southgate’s chagrin.

Whatever the case and whatever the reason, it is simply time for improvement. Draws against Slovakia (90+ minutes), Slovenia and Denmark are a terrible reflection of the efforts of this English team and if things are going to change now, it is time to stop looking at the manager and start looking at what is inside.

“As players we always take responsibility,” captain Harry Kane said on Friday. “I know the boss sometimes gets criticised and reprimanded.

‘But at the end of the day, it’s us on the pitch. It’s us who have to go out there and play the way we want to play and make the difference at crucial moments.

“I think the players feel that. Every game we tried to play better and improve. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t, but the most important thing is to find a way to get to the next round. We want to play better against Switzerland and hopefully we can.”

As Southgate himself spoke on Friday, he briefly referred to Kieran Trippier’s leadership qualities and noted how such traits are disappearing from the English game. It was thought provoking because it has become clear how England have suffered in that regard.

Jude Bellingham has tried, but has put his energy into too many wrong things. Declan Rice, a budding England captain, hasn’t found his own form good enough to worry about others. Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson are, of course, not there. This is an England team that needs direction, but also a basic improvement in performance.

Apart from goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and perhaps centre-back Marc Guehi, no player in Germany has lived up to his potential. Even Crystal Palace centre-back Guehi struggled in the last game and will miss tonight through suspension.

The idea of ​​fatigue is real and has been discussed within the England squad over the past week.

It is, it must be said, an age-old English problem and certainly more relevant than Kane’s odd comments about the pitches here at this tournament.

Kane explained on Friday that he had warned his England team-mates before the tournament that the grass would be long and the ball would therefore move slowly.

He added that he had experienced it in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. Kane scored 36 league goals last season at a rate of more than one per game. Here he has two and that is the most he has earned. His game is, in reality, as tough as anyone else’s.

Earlier this week, defender Stones spoke of the emotional turning point that Bellingham’s late equaliser against Slovakia could be. It’s a fair point. Anything that can be done to stoke the fire under this England team would be appreciated.

“Every big winner, or every country that wins, probably looks back on a moment that changed the course of the tournament, or was a key moment to push through,” Kane nodded.

‘Jude obviously stepped up and did that for us. I said at the time it was one of the best goals in English history.

‘I can’t remember anything so dramatic or late happening in the knockout stages that helped us get through.

‘It’s been a long time since an Englishman has done that, so those are the moments that you look back on in 10 or 11 days’ time, whenever the final is, and think: “Wow, that was the turning point.”

“We still have three big games ahead of us, so it’s step by step. This is going to be a very tough game, we know that.

“So we won’t know for sure until the end of the tournament. But I think 100 percent that this could be the spark that the team needed.”

Kane has been here before. This is England’s fourth tournament quarter-final in a row under Southgate and they have won three, the most notable being a defeat to France at the last World Cup.

The former Tottenham forward said on Friday that he is motivated by the pain that these tournaments bring in the final stages.

He also suggested that English football should probably do a bit more talking for them and he was absolutely right.

England have been on mute this tournament and it’s not just their manager’s fault.

On Saturday they really have to make their voices heard in Germany.