Marcus Rashford or Dele Alli: Why Gareth Southgate should choose between his England wonderkids

England have one foot at the World Cup and can confirm their place at next summer’s tournament with a victory in either of their final two qualifiers against Slovenia and Lithuania. For a campaign that began with a stoppage-time winner in Trnava followed by a managerial scandal, the Three Lions nevertheless look set to serenely top their group once again – and probably undefeated too.

But the ease of their progress should not disguise the enormous amount of work ahead for Gareth Southgate and his squad, not least in settling on a team capable of being competitive by the time the World Cup comes around. On paper – and admittedly, yes, we do say this every year – the side is crammed with potential. Harry Kane is a legitimately world-class striker, there is a plethora of attacking talent emerging and the two early Premier League favourites are being anchored by English centre-halves.

Yet it feels like Southgate is still searching for his best XI, at least one that can go toe-to-toe with the world’s best team’s next summer. The 4-2-3-1 he has favoured in qualification has been good enough to see off relative minnows, but such an open and expansive style – with Raheem Sterling on one flank and Marcus Rashford on the other – could be fatally exposed in Russia.

It feels ever-so-slightly like the beginnings of the problems England have had at tournaments past, the desire to put as many good players on the pitch as possible even if the balance of the side is compromised as a result. Playing just two central midfielders, by far the weakest area of England’s squad, is a recipe for disaster, especially against more possession-orientated sides – and the solution may require Southgate to pick between two of his most exciting young talents: Rashford and Dele Alli.

International football cannot really accommodate four such attack-minded players, and Adam Lallana’s eventual return from injury is likely to see him fast-tracked into the starting XI once more. He is a rarity in the squad, a genuine playmaker but capable of dropping in to make a three in midfield.

That creative presence between the lines has always been in such short supply for England, a country that has been importing the best No.10s from Europe and South America to plug their inability to create their own. Lallana bucks that trend – as does Harry Winks, albeit playmaking from deeper, and Southgate’s desire to get him involved bodes well – but it means someone else must miss out.

On the surface the decision is easy. Alli is a temperamental, streaky player who will miss the Slovenia match after being suspended for a middle finger gesture aimed at his own teammate, and who was booked for diving in his last league outing. While Alli has yet to replicate his Tottenham form in an England shirt, Rashford has been electric at times. An almost guaranteed bright spark even when Southgate’s side are playing miserably.

But it must be Alli who keeps his place in the side. His relatively laboured international performances owe much to being misused, his position and style misunderstood. Conscious of the need to not be too top-heavy with his selections, Southgate has used Alli much deeper, more like a box-to-box midfielder.

But that is not his style, nor is he a creator in the Lallana mould. The 21-year-old has spent near enough the past 18 months playing far higher, and far freer, than that. He is, for all intents and purposes, Kane’s strike partner at Spurs; a goalscoring No.10. In fact, Kane himself has underwhelmed slightly when playing for England, at least compared to his domestic form, precisely because of Alli’s change in role.

He is not a midfielder, despite comparisons with Frank Lampard and their abilities to be in the right place at the right time, nor is he a playmaker. He is a manipulator of space, a Raumdeuter (or ‘space interpreter’) to coin a phrase Thomas Muller used about himself. Not only does that create a lot of excellent scoring chances for himself, but his non-stop movement creates space for Kane to exploit, his channel running dragging centre-backs out of position. That is when he is at his most destructive.

That option does not exist if there are two wingers already exploiting that space, with Alli used to playing in a back three where the width comes from the deeper full-backs, while it also leaves the side extremely open at times. In fact, much of the England squad are now more at home in back three, to the point you wonder if the side would function better if that formation was mimicked with the national team.

For now, though, that experiment will probably have to wait. Alli’s suspension gives Rashford another chance to cement his credentials, but how he links up with Kane across the next few days will be hugely important. Kane, who will wear the armband on Thursday night, is the first name on the team sheet at this point, and Southgate’s priority should be getting the best out of him. If a by-product of that is a more balanced side, all the better.

Far from being a formality, England’s next two games will provide the final look at the Three Lions in a competitive match until next summer. It will also hint at whether Southgate can avoid the pitfalls of previous managers and settle on a formation that effectively utilises as many of his best players as possible, even if it reduces some to impact subs. Nevertheless, finding a way to accommodate so many excellent attacking players is an awfully nice problem to have.