The FA should remember Gareth Southgate setback before making Lee Carsley judgement

Wembley embarrassment should not be a decisive blow to interim manager Lee Carsley's long-term prospects,,, as long as England shine against Finland in Helsinki

The BBC is not prone to hyperbole but the headline on their report of a goalless draw in Slovenia exactly eight years ago said it all. SHAMBOLIC ENGLAND. Quite.

It was the end of a run of 14 wins in qualifiers for England - this one was for World Cup 2018 - and it would have been worse had it not been for Joe Hart, who made a succession of outstanding saves, and the woodwork. At the time, Slovenia were ranked 67th in the world.

It also happened to be the second game of an interim manager’s tenure and one for which Gareth Southgate had made a bold call, dropping Wayne Rooney to the bench. An interim manager making a bold call and seeing it not work out? Turns out there is precedent.

In that desperate performance in Ljubljana, England mustered a mere three shots on target. Southgate’s first match as temporary boss had been an uninspiring 2-0 win over lowly Malta at Wembley.

In mitigation, Southgate was right when he said at the time that he had ‘inherited a mess’, the humiliating Euro 2016 knockout loss to Iceland still painfully fresh. But after that grim display in Slovenia, there were few fans or pundits leading a campaign to give Southgate the permanent gig.

Lee Carsley, of course, did not inherit a mess. He inherited a squad that had just reached the final of Euro 2024. But to judge his long-term credentials on one embarrassing day at the office would be foolish.

With Southgate in mind, the Football Association should know that. Thursday night was an aberration in so many ways - in team selection, in tactics and, don’t forget, in individual contributions.

It is hard to legislate for Cole Palmer highlighting his forgettable night with an early miss that defied his early-season form, for example. And, seriously, you really cannot legislate for the abject defending that allowed the Greeks to take a lead.

Aside from England’s horror show, the excellence of Greece should not go unacknowledged either. They did not just sit back and hit England on the counter-attack, they were proactive and clever.

They are on a good run of form and clearly very well-coached. Yes, England were shockingly bad and Carsley knows it. He also knows that he was the main culprit.

And we also know that Carsley is not comfortable with everything that goes with the job, not least the public-facing demands. For that reason alone, the FA might think - considering those demands will not get any less onerous - that Carsley is not the right man.

Fair enough. But, purely on footballing grounds, to rule Carsley out on the back of the Greek defeat would be silly. What will be interesting will be how the players react. Carsley does not just need them to take care of Finland in Helsinki on Sunday, he needs them to turn on the style.

After the miserable display against Slovenia, Southgate reversed his bold call and reinstated Rooney for his next game as interim manager. England beat Scotland 3-0 and Southgate was on his way to the permanent job. And Carsley might yet follow suit.

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