Wayne Rooney is a reassuring presence but is it time to consider a future without him and Jesse Lingard makes an eye-catching debut in front of Roberto Mancini
Gareth Southgate had instructed his first lineup as senior manager to be brave and play with style, with neither aspiration particularly easy to achieve against massed ranks of Maltese defence. The way the game drifted tediously through the opening period was, for a while, troubling, yet the interim manager had also stressed the need for patience. “Eventually you wear teams down,” he had said. “They can’t chase you forever.”
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