As statements of the blindingly obvious go, Gareth Southgate’s observation that his team would not be playing like Spain by the summer takes some beating.
That is how he meant it.
Southgate is as exasperated as the next fan by the dearth of incisive, slick-passing, defence-unlocking central midfielders at his disposal.
Of the problems needing addressing by the England manager, this is the most pressing, the most crucial.
Maybe the young man occasionally referred to by his club manager as Little Iniesta can provide a solution.
Maybe Harry Winks is the answer.
Well, at least some sort of solution, some sort of answer.
It sounds thunderously ludicrous, of course.
Winks has made just four Premier League starts and was not even in this latest squad until Fabian Delph, a barrel-scraping selection in the first place, pulled out.
The chances of him becoming an automatic pick for Tottenham any time soon are not exactly high despite his manager’s praise.
Yet if you could take one fresh thought away from a dead rubber on wet plastic, it was that Winks can play.
Never mind that it was Lithuania in a pleasant kickabout, it was hard to recall Winks misplacing a pass.
And it was certainly not a meaningless match for debut-making Winks. Whatever level your indifference to international football, representing your country at senior level for the first time must remain one of the most special moments of a footballer’s career.
There must have been nerves but they never had an effect.
It should be a given but from the first whistle, this was a player demanding possession at every available opportunity.
The most impressive aspects to his game here were subtle, the occasional use, for example, of the no-look pass rather than England’s customary no-point pass, giving the eyes to the overlapping Aaron Cresswell but possession to the more threateningly-placed Marcus Rashford.
The surface was his friend but passes were fizzed with impressive purpose, he was strong in the tackle and one surge ended with an improvised shot that stretched Lithuanian goalkeeper Emestas Setkus - a rarity in yet another almost comically underwhelming England performance.
Working on the basis it has been pretty much established beyond doubt that this England team is hugely uninspiring, there is nothing wrong with rummaging for a positive or two.
Winks was undoubtedly a positive.
“For me, he is the perfect midfielder, who can play box-to-box and like a holding midfielder,” Pochettino said of Winks recently.
That is some call from a manager who has now coached 15 of the last 30 England debutants.
The question now, of course, is that as perfect as Pochettino considers him, how much game-time will Winks get for Spurs, where midfielder options are plentiful?
But he clearly has a blossoming talent and it is hard not to see him playing a decent part in Tottenham’s season.
All this smacks of straw-clutching, a player who was tidy against Lithuania being sighted as some sort of saviour.
Straw-clutching, though, becomes an unwanted speciality of any England manager.
And while mentioning Harry Winks’ name in the same breath as Iniesta might only be worth a giggle at this stage, he might, just might, grow into a player who can solve England’s most painful problem.