England manager Gareth Southgate has earnt respect if warning signs ahead of Qatar World Cup prove accurate

The crowd trouble at the last two matches and disgusting behaviour towards those who missed the penalties as the Three Lions lost to Italy in a shoot-out were major concerns, but on the field, things looked in good shape.

England were still without a major trophy since 1966 but by now we had got used to that. The positive momentum of a World Cup semi-final and a Nations League final had continued and manager Gareth Southgate had hit on a formula which worked, even if it was not as pleasing on the eye as some wanted, with many believing taking the handbrake off would be more effective still.

But the birth certificates of the squad members suggested a squad with plenty of improvement left in it. It was not a group whose cycle looked to have come to an end.

The truth is, though, the ages of players is never the reliable guide we take them to be.

Fourteen months on, things look much less assured.

A car crash of a summer dented confidence – four Nations League games, one goal, two points and a 4-0 thumping at home to Hungary to cap it all off. Perhaps end-of-season fatigue played its part with overworked footballers, perhaps it was just a blip – and a well-timed one at that.

But now a new season is up and running, the concerns appear to be growing, not retreating.

Going into the last two matches before the Qatar World Cup, a month before Southgate names his squad for it, the safe, settled structure he has built is anything but.

Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Ben Chilwell cannot get into their club sides (a change of Chelsea manager could help the latter); Mason Mount, Jack Grealish and Jarrod Bowen are below their best at this stage. Southgate's fondness for familiarity over form means they make up nearly a quarter of the squad for this long weekend's Nations League games against Italy and Germany – not exactly gentle warm-ups for a major tournament.

Relegation is on the line, although it will probably be a few years yet before we get a handle on how much that and this competition matters. It is probably not worth losing too much sleep about.

And then there is shoulder surgery for Kalvin Phillips. The midfielder may or may not be fit enough in time to head to the Middle East but one of the stars of the Euros, England's player of the year in 2020-21, has not played enough since, and is yet to start a game since leaving his hometown club Leeds United in the summer.

Injuries, even to players as big as Phillips, are not always the disaster they look, it must be said.

Any Englishman who would have happily done without one of the country's all-time great goalscorers, Jimmy Greaves, in 1966, would have needed his head looking at. Likewise, inspirational captain Bryan Robson going home early from the 1990 World Cup looked a footballing disaster. But those tournaments worked out rather well for Geoff Hurst, David Platt and their teams. You just never know.

Phillips' injury could even push Southgate towards the decision many have been lobbying some time for. Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham is fast taking over from Grealish as the cause celebre – we always seem to have one – a central midfielder who can offer more dynamism than the safer partnership of Phillips and Declan Rice that did such a good job at the Euros.

Whether that is the case remains to be seen. Southgate likes safe. Calling Jordan Henderson up as Phillips' replacement less than a week after he was not deemed fit enough for these games reminded us of that.

For now, though, possibly best to brace ourselves for the possibility disappointment at a tournament where hopes a year ago were high.

If so, there will have to be post-mortems on what Southgate got wrong. His record so far does not make him immune to criticism, certainly not when Sir Alf Ramsey was sacked in a far less knee-jerk age.

But what Southgate has earnt, and something he has tried to bring to English football, is respect. Win or lose in the winter, he might decide it is time to step away having seemed a little uncertain about the contract extension he signed until 2024.

Decent men like Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor were hounded out of their jobs in an era where the football print media in particular seemed to forget there were boundaries in the battle for circulation.

Whether it is this year or in the future, there will be a time when it is best for England that Southgate is no longer the manager and he may not be the first to recognise it; there will certainly be setbacks and disappointments.

Whenever they come we owe it to him and ourselves to show the respectful dignity he has brought to the job. Hopefully they are some way off yet.