Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Reece James: Ex-England right-back makes his pick while refusing to read too much into victory over Croatia side with an ‘average age of 45’

Mills - who won 19 caps for his country and graced FIFA’s flagship event in 2002 - is among those to have been watching on from afar as England seek to establish a trophy-chasing identity under German tactician Thomas Tuchel.

They are considered to have got things “massively wrong” on North American soil over the summer, despite clinching third place and their best finish since 1966. A last-four defeat against Lionel Messi and Argentina, having opened the scoring in that contest, led to plenty of uncomfortable questions being asked.

Many of those were directed at Tuchel, with the ex-Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss flooding his side with defenders when he should have been going for the jugular. England did look more adventurous when opening their latest Nations League campaign.

They made light work of two meetings with Czechia, while crushing Croatia 7-0 in Rijeka. Defeat was suffered against world champions Spain, in an entertaining contest at Wembley, with more defensive flaws being highlighted there.

Mills is not convinced that the Three Lions are as good as some would have you believe, with bold Euro 2028 predictions already being made as that tournament prepares to head to British shores.

The ex-Manchester City and Leeds United defender - who was speaking in association with Gambling.com, the guide to the best online casinos - told GOAL when asked to assess England’s right-back berth and recent performances as a collective: “I think Reece James is the better all-round player.

“We're two years, 18 months away from European Championships. Trent has come back into the fold. He's an exceptional talent, we know that. But at the very, very top level, when you're getting to semi-finals, quarter-finals, and we saw this in the World Cup, it's about how you defend. If you're a defender, you have to be able to defend one-on-one.

“If you end up with six at the back against four attackers, you lose the game. We saw that in the World Cup. You can put as many defenders on as you want, it doesn't work. You have to be good enough to defend one-on-one.

“And the teams that we've played, OK, I know we scored a lot of goals, but let's be honest, we beat a Croatia team with an average age of 45 or whatever it was. Some of those players seem older than me they've been around that long!

“We should be beating the Czech Republic all day long. There's not a game there that you think we shouldn't have won. People go, ‘oh yeah, the Spain game was great’. Yeah, but we could have been 3-0 down before we got a shot on target. Being 2-1 at half-time was a bit fortunate. OK, missed the penalty, but then they dominated. If you look at the balance of play, if you'd have said that game would have ended 6-2, you wouldn't have had too many arguments about that. You can't be conceding that amount of chances against quality teams.

“Obviously, the results have been fantastic. But they pretty much always are in qualification. When was the last time we didn't qualify? Steve McClaren in 2008? We qualify pretty much all the time, no matter what. It's what happens when you come to tournaments.

“The last tournament, I would say tactically and decision-making was wrong. We got it massively wrong in that last tournament. That was why Thomas Tuchel was brought in. You can win every game, as far as I'm concerned, 6-0 up until the Euros, but if you don't win the final, what was the point?”

England have scored 12 goals without reply through their last three matches. Talismanic captain Harry Kane has taken his record-shattering tally of international goals to 91 and remains in the Ballon d’Or hunt.

He will be looking to earn cap 126, making more history there, when the Three Lions return to action against Croatia on November 12. With a Nations League quarter-final spot all-but secured, another big test of Tuchel’s credentials will be taken in when facing Spain at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.