It is time for England to seize the moment and settle the debate around Gareth Southgate's legacy as Three Lions boss once and for all, writes IAN LADYMAN

If Gareth Southgate gets things right here in Germany then he will register his 100th game as England manager in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024. But as his team prepare to face Serbia in Gelsenkirchen tonight, he is accompanied by the knowledge that what happens this summer will largely define his popular legacy.

Southgate feigns indifference to the debate about his record. There are those of us who think the 53-year-old has advanced the cause of the national team beyond anybody’s expectations during his eight years in the job. But there are many who feel a generation of young attacking players have been stifled by the former central defender’s inherent caution.

So over the next two weeks and hopefully more, Southgate has the opportunity to settle the debate once and for all.

‘What we have done until this point and what our reputations are doesn’t really matter,’ said Southgate. ‘We have confidence and evidence that we can play well but we have to deliver from tomorrow and we will be judged by what we do in this period and not anything before.’

Southgate has said he will in all likelihood leave this post if England don’t break their 58-year trophy drought this summer. He has, therefore, set himself quite a bar.

He does feel the criticism, though. At times it seems to weary him a little. Asked about how he would like to be remembered when his time is up, he said: ‘Other people will decide that. I am not really too interested in it.

‘My complete focus is on starting this tournament well.’

A couple of minutes later, however, he was talking about how other European coaches view his team. ‘Everybody recognises that we’ve got a dangerous side, even if they aren’t putting us on a pedestal,’ he said. ‘I think they feel we’ve progressed well over seven or eight years.

‘Whenever I travel around Europe, you get a different view perhaps to the one I get at home.’

That’s the crux of it really. Despite a World Cup semi-final in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final that came before the quarter-final exit at the 2022 World Cup, the under-appreciation has stung a little. Here at least he is preparing to try to win this tournament on the front foot. Expected to play Liverpool right back Trent Alexander Arnold alongside Declan Rice in the centre of midfield, Southgate was happy to acknowledge it’s a risk.

‘We know he can be a really special player but equally we know it’s not something he’s been doing for the last five years,’ he said.

‘There is an element of the unknown to it. But I think it’s an opportunity that’s worth grasping because he could be something incredibly special.’

Serbia will present modest opposition but defeat by Iceland in England’s final friendly before departure has served to lower expectations a little, at home if not at England’s base camp over on the other side of the country.

Southgate knows he has a good side at his disposal. He knows the high-tariff football that can be executed by the likes of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Phil Foden and indeed Alexander-Arnold. He knows that England can win this tournament.

He also knows that his back four will be unbalanced, with the inexperienced Marc Guehi playing at centre half alongside John Stones and a natural right back Kieran Trippier filling in on the left. Luke Shaw, England’s natural left back, is back in full contact training but is not expected to make it. And then there are other teams and players. Southgate was as impressed as the rest of us with how Germany started their home tournament with a butchering of Scotland on Friday but was not at all surprised.

‘Germany’s results over the last 18 months haven’t reflected their performances,’ Southgate said.

‘They have got some outstanding players. They worked incredibly hard for each other and the way they played was no surprise.

‘Those players are capable of doing that and delivered a really strong performance. They are one of a number of teams with some really good young players. There are a lot around Europe. I know of course that our focus is always on ours but when you watch European football and other leagues you are aware of how many good players there are.’

England trained yesterday before flying west to the Ruhr valley. England have history here, of course, and it’s not good. Sven Goran Eriksson’s team were highly fancied to contest the 2006 World Cup but fell in the last eight to Portugal on a day that saw Wayne Rooney sent off.

Southgate has already sat his players down and warned them of the physical dangers presented by Serbia. There may well be some intimidation too. Former Newcastle and Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic will have noticed the absence of Harry Maguire — usually the team’s first point of contact at defensive set-pieces — with interest.

‘They have good individual players, some of whom we know and we know that their commitment and pride is a huge strength to them,’ explained Southgate.

‘We’ve made the players very aware of all of those factors in training this week.’

England should win this game, though. If they want to be taken seriously then they really need to. Captain Harry Kane is possibly the best out-and-out forward in the competition and for all that Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz and Ilkay Gundogan lit up the Allianz Arena for Germany on Friday, Southgate’s attacking options are just as enticing and England arguably have considerably greater depth.

There is inexperience in Southgate’s squad. The change in personnel since the last World Cup is not something anybody could have anticipated, not even the manager.

Summer tournaments are where reputations are established, however. England have players in their ranks who are starting to go through the gears at club level. Players like Rice, Bellingham, Foden and Saka. If they have sufficient energy in the tank then this stage could be theirs.

‘I think there is opportunity for people to make a name for themselves,’ was the way Southgate put it yesterday. ‘This is a moment in time for them.’

It is, it could be argued, such a moment for the England manager too.