Daniel Sturridge's England fear becomes reality after ex-Liverpool man warned fans

Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge felt that the winner of the European Championship in Germany could be a side that goes into the tournament in good form, potentially ruling out Gareth Southgate and England.

And so far, the former Reds man, who collected 26 England caps while he was playing, has been proven right. The Three Lions lost to Iceland before heading to the tournament and have since beaten Serbia and drawn with Denmark. Things have looked disjointed, though, and the attacking part of the team, in particular, has been dysfunctional.

Southgate has struggled to get his best players on the pitch in an optimal way and it looks unlikely that England will suddenly be able to turn on a better showing when it faces a better team. While it will qualify for the knockout phase, several sides including Spain and Germany have looked considerably better up to now.

READ MORE: Leny Yoro transfer 'agreed' after Liverpool interest and Real Madrid decision
READ MORE: Liverpool transfer news LIVE: Leny Yoro move 'agreed', Nico Williams latest, Man Utd likes Calafiori

"When you look at some teams who have won a major tournament recently, usually their runs going into a competition have involved long, unbeaten streaks, like Italy before the Euros and Argentina before the World Cup," Sturridge told FourFourTwo while previewing the tournament.

"Then I feel like a lot of things happened during the competition, which made them believe. Argentina went from a challenging start when they lost to Saudi Arabia.

"At first you were thinking perhaps they don’t have a chance, then all of a sudden they started winning and you were like ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’. So it depends on many factors, but I have a good feeling about England at the Euros."

While Sturridge wanted to be wrong about England's form going into the tournament counting against Southgate, the evidence so far suggests he was right. England will be next in action on Tuesday when it plays Slovenia in Cologne.

Liverpool.com says: As long as Trent Alexander-Arnold isn't made into the scapegoat for the Three Lions being dysfunctional and crashing out, few Reds fans will lose any sleep over the poor performance of the England team. What we have learned is that playing the Liverpool man in his best position, at full-back, is probably a good idea. Squeezing all your best players in with no regard for the balance of the team isn't.