In the days leading up to England’s last-16 day of destiny with Slovakia, the question being asked inside the camp was not whether Jude Bellingham would play – that was never in doubt – but whether he could do all the things that were asked of him.

At 21, Bellingham is already a world star. He is a strong personality on the pitch, and he has his own view of the way the game should be played. He is never hesitant when it comes to sharing his opinion with the referee and the edge to his game often comes through in different ways. As Sunday’s game developed, he rode out a potentially dangerous early booking on 14 minutes. His commentary on his dramatic equaliser – “Who else?” – demonstrated his self-confidence. But behind this was how he would play in an England system that was faltering.

Like all footballers who operate at that level, when Bellingham is isolated for periods of the game without the ball, he can come looking for it – and that had been one of the problems in England’s group games. Bellingham, a No 10 in a 4-2-3-1 system, and the most advanced of the midfielders in a 4-3-3, had started to wander from his position.

His touch maps detail his average position against Serbia and Denmark that subtly show the issue. Bellingham came too deep, too often, leaving the advanced positions that Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland wanted him to take up. Against Slovenia his position was further forward but almost identical to that of Phil Foden – both their positions overlapping. As a team England were not working. If that was to change then one important factor would be Bellingham’s position.

In the build-up to the Slovakia game, Bellingham was encouraged to hold his nerve and to stay in more advanced positions, however difficult that might be at times. Fighting the urge to forage for the ball is one that others have had to contend with too. Wayne Rooney, the exceptional player of a previous England generation, was prone to chasing the ball around the pitch when he felt he was not seeing enough of it.

But against Slovakia there was a shift: Bellingham’s average position on the ball was notably further up the pitch. It was not a transformative moment for the England team – they still struggled to get the ball forward to Bellingham and Harry Kane when their attackers were in good positions. For 94 mins and 36 secs, neither Bellingham’s position, nor that of his team-mates, yielded the results that England’s coaches and staff had hoped to see. Until that moment it did.

That Bellingham’s personal expected goals (xG) metric for the Slovakia game was just 0.19 shows how much he made of the single chance he was afforded. The data measured that goal as a chance that would ordinarily be converted less than once in every five attempts.

That volley, both feet off the ground, one of the greatest tournament goals ever scored by an Englishman was testament to his ability. He would likely have occupied those spaces regardless, in a team chasing an equaliser deep into injury-time. Yet it is the bigger picture that will satisfy Southgate even more. His average position while playing as a No 10 will have been even more advanced than the touch map shows. After Ivan Toney’s arrival in injury time Bellingham was dropped a little deeper – he was more of a central midfielder in a 3-5-2 formation until he was eventually substituted in the 105th minute.

Most crucial for England was that their No 10 was trying to occupy the advanced spaces in between the lines. He held his nerve. It had not always been possible to get the ball to him, but if England are to play to the shape that has been plotted for them Bellingham will have to take up the necessary positions.

That requires a patience that does not come easy to the young and ambitious. That early booking came from the skittish Turkish referee Hamil Umut Meler, whose personal history might explain some of his demeanour. It was Meler who was attacked on the pitch in a Turkish Super Lig game in December by the Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca and associates. When Bellingham went to place his hands on the shoulders of the referee on Sunday evening, a placatory gesture that he occasionally does when he wishes to have his point heard, Meler took an indignant step back.

Those are the details around which Bellingham will have to be careful. He has one red card in his senior career picked up against Valencia this season after the final whistle of a game in which he had been denied a late winner. Those moments can occasionally be a consequence of playing on the edge, as players like Bellingham are wont to do, but for England they rarely end happily in tournaments.

As for the rest – there was the gesture that has attracted the attention of the Uefa disciplinary department. Bellingham has said it was simply a private joke. His post-match press conference saw him settle a few scores but then, after one of the most dramatic goals in England tournament history, he is entitled to do so.

Bellingham is a cheerful soul and post-match Southgate would briefly touch upon the world in which his No 10 lives – one far removed from that of any other 21-year-old in Britain and possibly anywhere else. A life of great possibilities, but also one where a fine line has to be walked. He showed against Slovakia that he can direct that energy into something spectacular. He certainly kept to the basics of the position he was asked to play, which contributed to him being in the right place at the right time for the really special bit.