Gareth Southgate's credit is running out, Harry Kane has been blunted and Gary Lineker was right! Winners and losers from England's dismal Euro 2024 group stage journey

Bear with us here. Despite boring both neutral and England fans into oblivion, Southgate's side are exactly where they wanted to be at the start of the tournament, having won their group and made it to the kinder half of the draw for the knockout stage.

They will avoid Germany, Portugal, Spain and France all the way to the final, and their toughest opponents are likely to be either the Netherlands, Belgium or Italy, who have all been underwhelming.

They are ultimately in the same position they would be as if they had won all of their matches 4-0 or 5-0. They have also managed to avoid any injuries or suspensions. And after making such a poor start, the only way is up.

Southgate's credit from being the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey is fast running out and he has played into his critics' hands by overseeing three stale, conservative performances. He also hasn't helped his cause by making just one change to his starting line-up, although he has been reactive with his substitutes.

Despite having an embarrassment of attacking riches, England have produced barely any exciting passages of play and the abiding memory of their group stage games is of the team knocking the ball sideways or backwards in a pedestrian manner. The team have also looked ridiculously lopsided, a result of the manager not picking any reserve left-backs to cover for Luke Shaw.

A lot of fans are losing perspective as a result of the insipid football they are witnessing and a couple of supporters in Cologne were so furious with Southgate that they threw empty cups towards him at full-time. Southgate, to his credit, knows how to handle the pressure better than most and has refused to make the situation worse by rising to the bait.

"I understand the narrative towards me and that's better for the team than it being towards them," he said. "But it is creating an unusual environment to operate in. I've not seen any other team qualify and receive similar."

Southgate will know how quickly the narrative can change and one good performance is all it takes to get the country back on his side. But is he capable of making the necessary tweaks to make that happen?

The pressure is rising against the team's stars, with Bellingham, Kane and Declan Rice receiving most of the criticism after the last two results. Meanwhile, the clamour for the players who have not started to get a bigger role is only growing.

Cole Palmer injected some trickery and guile into the team against Slovenia and made a strong case to start the next game, having been discarded against Serbia and Denmark. Anthony Gordon was given just a few minutes against Slovenia and could help solve the team's woes down the left flank.

England's problems in midfield should also provide an opening for Adam Wharton, who is yet to play a minute of football in Germany but who would surely be a better option than Alexander-Arnold or Gallagher.

The players who were left behind by Southgate have also been boosted by the team's sterile showing so far in the tournament. Jack Grealish's tactical intelligence has been missing while the team have also been crying out for the pace of Marcus Rashford.

The Liverpool star was given the nod for the first two games despite never having played alongside Declan Rice in midfield and the experiment proved to be a big mistake.

There has been a long-running debate about whether Alexander-Arnold would be better off in midfield than at right-back but it is telling that Jurgen Klopp, who brought him through at Liverpool and knows him better than any other coach, never played him in the middle.

His positional awareness off the ball was badly lacking in both matches and when he was the only player to be dropped for the third game, it looked like he was the fall guy. As it turned out, Conor Gallagher looked like an even weaker option against Slovenia but it was telling that Southgate replaced the Chelsea midfielder with Kobbie Mainoo rather than Alexander-Arnold.

His days as an England midfielder, at least in Euro 2024, look to be numbered and his best hope at getting back into the team appears to be at left-back or right-back in the event anything happens to Kyle Walker.

The Crystal Palace centre-back has been one of England's most consistent performers in the group stage along with Kyle Walker. But while Walker is a seasoned veteran of major tournaments, this is Guehi's first such experience and he has looked completely at home.

Replacing Harry Maguire was no easy task but Guehi's assured performances have meant that England have barely missed the Manchester United defender. Indeed, Guehi offers much more on the ball than Maguire, allowing England to keep it for longer periods and rarely giving the opposition the opportunity to launch attacks.

Guehi has not been entirely flawless, giving the ball away in dangerous areas against Denmark and Slovenia. But on each occasion he quickly corrected his mistake, making a perfectly-timed slide tackle on Alexander Bah on the first occasion and then taking out Andraz Sporar in exchange for a booking.

Despite scoring one of England's two goals, Kane has contributed almost nothing in the three games and it is not clear what his current role is. He is not getting in the box enough and thus not making the most of his striking prowess.

And he is not getting involved in the play. He is dropping deep, but he is often dropping too deep to the point that he cannot influence the team's play. Against Slovenia, he had fewer touches than Kobbie Mainoo, who played just 45 minutes, and as many as opposing goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

His shooting has been poor: he had eight attempts on goal across the three games, only hitting the target twice. His long-range passing has also been sloppy, with the one goal which England have conceded, against Denmark, coming from a stray pass from the captain.

That moment seemed to sum up Kane's issue at the tournament, as he turned up in the left-back position, an illustration that he looks lost in the current set up. The fact that he is still reeling from the effects of a back injury sustained late in the season is clearly not helping. Southgate must either tweak his tactics to get Kane firing again or make the tough but necessary decision to drop him.

The BBC presenter and former England striker has become a huge part of the story of the tournament for his outspoken comments following the draw with Denmark, when he described the team's performance as 'sh*t' during his Rest is Football podcast.

His comments clearly rattled the England squad, particularly Kane and Rice. But Lineker was spot-on with his analysis and he was at pains to point out that England's performance was not due to a lack of effort. The role of the media is to scrutinise and Lineker and his fellow analysts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards would be doing their viewers and listeners a disservice if they had reacted positively to the dross they were watching.

Honesty and integrity are key tenets of journalism in Britain and although this is only sport, the same principles apply. Kane and Rice might want Lineker and Co. to be cheerleaders but that is not their job. If the players want more positive analysis, then they need to earn it.

The European Championship has been a joyous occasion so far. Spain and Germany have turned on the style, while Austria have been arguably the most impressive side of all given how cohesive they have been as a collective, with Ralf Rangnick making a mockery of the idea that an international manager cannot impose a style on his team.

But England have been the biggest disappointment of all, sapping all excitement from matches which fans spend two years looking forward to. The supporters deserve better, from the tens of thousands who have spent all their earnings to follow the team in Germany, to the millions at home watching with their loved ones.

Leaving aside those who threw cups at Southgate and the handful who have been arrested, England fans have behaved impeccably in Germany, drawing praise from local police and authorities.

They roared their team on right until full-time in Cologne, before releasing a cacophony of boos when the whistle came. They will be in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday and glued to their screens back home. Let's hope the players can give them a performance to shout about at last.