England's Euro 2024 defeat points to need for more variety as passing disease strikes again - Stuart Rayner

As Euro 2024 progressed, it felt like the Three Lions were finding a way in spite of themselves but in Sunday’s final against Spain, an inability to keep the ball was once more their biggest failing.

There were far more failings than just one, but when England exit major tournaments – and for the last 58 years the only times they have not is when they failed to qualify altogether – it usually feels like the biggest factor, especially now Gareth Southgate has remedied their penaltyitis.

There will always be more than one way to win a football match and Spain deservedly won the tournament because 12 years on from their golden era, the penny has dropped that keeping the ball for the sake of it is not what the game is all about.

La Roja were more prepared to take risks looking for the killer pass. Just as they looked to be on the point of extinction, they gloriously resurrected the artform that is wingers.

Every Englishman or woman watching Sunday's final would have supported Spain had they been playing just about anyone else.

So the question has to be: Why can England not do that?

Those who answer "Gareth Southgate" are deluding themselves if they think changing the manager alone will solve all England's ills.

In making his team more tournament-savvy and more successful than any post-1966 side, Southgate never let flair fully flourish but the struggles keeping the ball had little to do with tactics or selection.

Jude Bellingham would not be Real Madrid's mainstay if he was sloppy on the ball, even more so Phil Foden at Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka would not be Arsenal regulars.

Kobbie Mainoo outpassed them all in Germany, where according to Opta only seven midfielders who made 200 or more passes did so more accurately than his 92.5 per cent. They were not just stats-padding passes either, his hunger to play forward and follow his pass one of England's competition highlights.

Their 89 per cent tournament passing success rate was decent, the sixth best, and whilst you might aspire to better than decent with such a talented group, no team made more successful passes (3,839).

But in the crucible of a final, accuracy dropped to 77.9 per cent (only three teams' tournament figure was lower). Spain's nudged up half a per cent to 90.2, even with one of the best passers on the planet – Rodri – off injured midway though.

In the first half-hour against Serbia, and 45 minutes v Switzerland and the Dutch, England did well before fading. They made fewer successful passes in Sunday's first half (100) than any since October 2009.

Mainoo looked a shadow of the exciting player of previous appearances. As a 19-year-old who had never played at this level, he can be forgiven and will come back stronger. There was plenty of World Cup, Champions League and European Championship final experience around him, though.

In the first 15 minutes, England relied on excellent defending from Kyle Walker, John Stones, Declan Rice and in particular Luke Shaw but when the game restarted after half-time, Shaw looked sluggish as Lamine Yamal got inside him, Walker was dragged inside and could not get out to stop Nico Williams scoring. Chasing the ball for 45 minutes does that – as does starting your first game since February 18, like Shaw.

The second half was less about defenders limiting Spain, more just Jordan Pickford.

Even Cole Palmer’s cool equaliser came when Bellingham brilliantly made up for giving the ball away.

It felt inevitable Spain's dominance would get its reward, and when substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored no one could say their 2-1 win was undeserved.

Have England ever had so many technically gifted players? Even some of those left at home – Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and James Maddison – are outstanding.

That is less down to the manager – although as head of elite development in the early 2010s, Southgate played his part – or polishing by the outstanding foreign club bosses, more youth coaches nationwide.

But the system is producing a disproportionate number of players to play in the hole. Now even England's No 9 wants to be a No 10 and when Harry Kane, Bellingham, Foden, Palmer, Grealish, Maddison and Rashford all want to operate between central midfield and centre-forward, it can get a bit cluttered.

The best youngsters perhaps need to be pointed in different directions to create alternative Kanes, Mainoos, Rices, Stones and Sakas.

Above all it would be lovely to have a Rodri, a Kroos, or at past tournaments, a Jorginho, a Pirlo, or a Schweinsteiger – a deep-lying midfielder who cannot just win the ball deep but dictate play without it.

The next few years will just be about finding a way – any way that works – to break the trophyless spell with the tools available, but after so much progress behind the scenes, variety is the next step.