THE ONE thing Gareth Southgate needs, other than the Wayne Rooney of a decade past, is the one thing he does not have. Time.
In normal circumstances, listening to the coach parachuted into the England job at no notice warning there will be no quick fix would barely resonate.
Yet it is hard to imagine a more challenging scenario than the one Southgate has inherited and the clock is ticking on the interim England manager. After a mere four training sessions with his team, there are now just 270 minutes of action left for him to make an unmistakeable case to remain in power on a permanent basis.
“Three coaches in three games speaks for itself,” he said. “I have messages that are different to Sam’s [Allardyce] and probably different to Roy’s [Hodgson].
“You’ve got managers throughout the Premier League who are coming into clubs and have the whole pre-season. And if you speak to them they will probably say it took that time to get their ideas across. But I’ve got to say I wasn’t too romantic about it. I knew there was a job to be done.”
The intriguing part of all this, the bit that the Football Association has probably not factored in, is what if his remaining three games do not provide a conclusive answer?
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They clearly want Southgate to fly through his audition and make the decision on Allardyce’s successor a formality.
But what if an England side in the midst of change draw against Slovenia Tuesday night – as they came close to doing 16 months ago – and scrape past Scotland ending up with seven points from three World Cup qualifiers? Or worse still, five ahead of the friendly with Spain?
Is the FA strong enough to look beyond the black and white of results, perhaps go against the public mood, and stick with a vision from someone who clearly wants to implement a plan but who may run out of matches.
Saturday was an occasion like that. England could not lose and won comfortably. But there was nothing in the scoreline to seduce anyone, nothing in a hum-drum second-half performance to set the pulse racing against Maltese opponents, who regarded a 2-0 defeat as a victory.
England were ponderous, failed to take enough risks and were profligate once again. It is now eight goals from their last 87 attempts which rings ridiculous, although for that Southgate can shoulder some of the blame.
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Jesse Lingard – a Southgate protege from his Under-21s days – did well enough on debut, but there should be no surprise that having got himself in good positions he failed to mark his bow with a goal. He is a player who, thus far in his career, has scored in one of every five matches.
Marcus Rashford scores one in two but was puzzlingly deployed wide when belatedly introduced which went against the ‘brave, new world’ mantra of the build-up.
If, as they should, Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli had succeeded in adding to the goal they each plundered and England triumphed 6-0 the spotlight would have been there for Southgate to bask in. They did not, so its glare falls on Rooney.
The return to Ljubljana is not well timed for the captain, unfairly booed when one shot from distance cleared the crossbar late on. What is it about England fans that they are prepared to burn today the players they worshipped yesterday?
Back in June 2015, Rooney instinctively speared home a late winner to seal a 3-2 success in the Stozice Stadium during a streak in which he plundered 10 goals in 13 appearances.
The reality is that since then, England’s options have improved. Sturridge has come back, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy have come in and Alli has revealed himself to be a shimmering No10.
Rooney has sought to reinvent himself as a midfield quarter-back in order try and retain an influence, yet the comparisons with Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are flawed.
Giggs moved inside five yards, Scholes stepped back a couple. Rooney is trying to play a different position and it is hard to think of a striker who has successfully done that.
It was Jordan Henderson who set up both goals and took the lead in midfield, always passing forward rather than spreading play sideways. Rooney dovetailed with him but that is not enough to warrant a place long term.
The memory of England’s last decent win – the come-from-behind 3-2 success over Germany in March when Rooney was absent – also kicks in and becomes part of the case to dispense with him.
The suspicion lingers it will not be tomorrow he is cast adrift even if Eric Dier is earmarked to stiffen the midfield. Theo Walcott is more vulnerable having once again failed to grasp an opportunity.
As the forensic cross-examination of Southgate took hold afterwards, it might have felt as if a landmark day had solely been one to forget.
“I guess this is the reality of being the England manager, everything is analysed to that sort of level isn’t it?” he said.
For a split second, it sounded like the novelty of the job was threatening to wear off as quickly as the minutes tick down.