Five things we didn't learn from England

It was meant to be an evening in which Gareth Southgate would learn something new about his England side, but instead the 1-0 loss to Germany in Dortmund was a big, fat damp squib. Lukas Podolski's bullet winner midway through the second half was completely out of keeping with the game itself, and for the Three Lions it felt like a missed opportunity to actually move forward as an international side under their new head coach. There were a number of areas where Southgate will have learnt little, and Goal can name at least five...

He may well start against Lithuania in Sunday's World Cup qualifier at Wembley, but Marcus Rashford was given only 20 minutes to shine at Signal Iduna Park. Worse still, he was introduced just after Podolski had hammered home the winning goal and given Germany the opportunity to test out their containing game with what resembled a back eight. It all conspired to give the Manchester United youngster little of the space in which he thrives. Instead of Rashford it was Jamie Vardy who was given the nod up front, and aside from his temerity to dive for a potential penalty there was little new on show from the Leicester striker than has already been deined about his game from previous England outings. Yes, he might have the more experienced head which would have been the right approach had this been a competitive international, but the 19-year-old will probably feel this was one opportunity he might have been afforded by his former under-21s boss. It is not as though Rashford could have been rusty either, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic's domestic suspension helping to give him more game time of late at club level. But we're still none the wiser as to whether he could be the right man for England sooner rather than later.

To all intents and purposes England's back three did a decent job in Dortmund, but in truth they were never really tested and Southgate will be none the wiser as to whether it might be the best formation to pit against a major nation at a more critical juncture. With Jogi Low opting to send out an experimental-looking line-up, the Three Lions were asked few questions until Podolski let rip from range with the hosts' first shot on target to settle the contest. Donnarumma crowned NxGn winner Debutant Michael Keane looked largely composed on the right of the trio until making an error under rare pressure late on, Chris Smalling was rarely put under pressure in his fifth start in a back three in the past fortnight, while skipper for the night Gary Cahill has had few such quiet evenings even playing for a dominant Chelsea this season. They could try the formation again on Sunday when Lithuania come to Wembley, but what would be the point? They are even less likely to attack than this unrecognisable Germany.

source goal.com