Harry Maguire is playing in the wrong position for England - Sue Smith

A comfortable friendly win over Wales and three hard-fought Nations League points against Belgium represented a good few days’ work for Gareth Southgate’s team but their defeat to Denmark put a bit of a dampener on the international break.

Beating Belgium, the world’s top-ranked team, made up for the fact that Sunday’s performance did not always look very fluid, but losing to the Danes brought those concerns to the surface.

Romelu Lukaku was running the show for Belgium in the first half of their game at Wembley and the visitors could easily have gone in a few goals ahead but it was great credit to England that they managed to solve the problems, closed the gaps in midfield and posed a threat themselves.

Likewise, England seemed to adapt quite well after a crazy few minutes against Denmark on Wednesday when Harry Maguire was sent off and they conceded a Christian Eriksen penalty. They went to four at the back, Tyrone Mings and Connor Coady looked solid and the team created opportunities, forcing a brilliant Kasper Schmeichel save and a headed clearance off the line by Simon Kjaer.

But it was not pretty to watch and England lost the game.

The big question is whether they are playing the right system having gone to a 3-4-3 this autumn. As a manager do you pick a formation and fit players into it or the other way around? I lean more towards adapting the system to the players.

Coady is comfortable in a back three at Wolverhampton Wanderers, but England’s other central defenders are more used to playing in a four at club level.

Harry Maguire has not been in the best form recently and I am just not sure if he is well suited to a back three. He played in one at the last World Cup, when England reached the semi-finals, but that was a long time ago and he does not look comfortable going wide. Because he is short of confidence his touch and positioning do not seem quite right and when you are doing something you are not used to, that emphasises it a little bit.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is a brilliant right-back for Liverpool but did not look as effective at wing-back against Belgium and was not picked against Denmark.

Jack Grealish is one of England’s most creative players and Mason Mount is a good creative player for Chelsea so would a three in midfield work better for them? Southgate reverted to a 4-3-3 after the World Cup and enjoyed a string of high-scoring wins but was that because of the lower standard of opposition in England’s European Championship qualifying group?

Maybe it is a good thing if Southgate has the ability to flip between a couple of formations and he clearly thinks three at the back is the best way for England to do well in major tournaments.

What has frustrated a lot of fans is the football can be a little bit dull but do we have two centre-halves good enough to deal with the best attacks in the world on their own?

In this formation the team defends in numbers and England had kept six consecutive clean sheets until conceding penalties against Belgium and Denmark.

Social media was full of criticism when Southgate did not use Grealish, man of the match against Wales, on Wednesday but I am in two minds.

I wonder if he is missing out because there is no ideal position for him in the current set-up. It is hard to see him as one of two central midfielders because I would worry about the protection if the wing-backs went high and wide. Southgate seems to prefer two defensive players there, and you would think when everyone is fit, the forward line would be three from Kane, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho.

Perhaps against much lower-ranked teams England should go 4-3-3 knowing the centre-halves will not be tested too much and it is all about releasing the flair and creativity – then maybe against a better standard of attacking player go with the greater protection of a back three.

It is all about trying to find a balance and between the tournaments Southgate can try things out because England are pretty good at qualifying.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson