Scrappy defence and Jack Grealish omission are now Gareth Southgate’s biggest headaches

England’s last friendly before the start of the European Championship proved to be a deeply concerning evening for Gareth Southgate, who watched his side fall to a demoralising 1-0 defeat at Wembley.

England created few clear goal-scoring opportunities and were perhaps fortunate that Iceland, ranked 72nd in the world, were not more ruthless on the counter-attack.

With just over one week to go before England face Serbia in Germany, here are four headaches that Southgate and his coaching staff must urgently address.

Lack of width

England’s left side for the opening hour was made up of Kieran Trippier and Anthony Gordon, team-mates at Newcastle United. The problem with deploying Trippier in an unfamiliar left-back position is that he naturally comes inside, onto his stronger right foot, rather than overlapping down the left wing.

In that first hour of action, Trippier hardly pushed beyond Gordon at all. It was Gordon’s job to hold the width and stretch the Iceland defence, which he did on occasion, but he too is a right-footed player who prefers to drive inside. Iceland, as a result, were never pulled apart.

On the right flank, Cole Palmer also spent much of the game drifting into more central positions. Palmer is not an out-and-out winger, preferring instead to operate in the pockets of space he can between the lines. Against Iceland’s packed defence, he produced some lovely touches (more of which later) but England were reliant on Kyle Walker pushing high up from full-back. It was not an approach that led to many chances.

Defensive instability

It should not be easy to run through the midfield of a team of England’s quality, and yet Iceland’s forward players frequently found themselves in space, in the heart of the pitch, with plenty of grass to charge into. England were too open on the counter-attack and unable to suffocate Iceland despite having so much of the possession.

Iceland’s goal came from one of these counter-attacks – there were questions to be asked of Kobbie Mainoo in England’s midfield as the visitors broke away – and they might have scored two more from such situations after the break.

One part of the issue was the space between England’s midfield, defensive and forward lines. The other issue was even more straightforward: England’s back four were not in sync. In the second half, Ezri Konsa played an Iceland forward onside as Marc Guehi pushed higher.

England will hope this was simply a consequence of Konsa and Guehi’s unfamiliarity with each other, rather than a more structural issue. John Stones, assuming he is fit, will surely start ahead of Konsa next week. Stones played the first half here after picking up an early knock.

The Grealish question

Rightly or wrongly, the name of Jack Grealish will be brought up every time England struggle to break down an opposition defence. The point here is not that Grealish would necessarily have made a difference – based on his form for Manchester City, at least, he would not have offered much – but that his omission was such a significant talking point.

Grealish’s fame and popularity means that his deselection is a decision that threatens to hang over this European Championship campaign. Such discussions are not helpful for anyone and, in the short-term, the sooner that England can move on from Grealish, the better.

The positive headache… Palmer

On a difficult night for England and Southgate, the good news was that Palmer produced another inventive and sparky performance in attack. He was perhaps wasteful at times (he failed to shoot when in behind in the second half) but no England player did more to spook the Iceland defence, and no England player was so adept at taking the ball under pressure in tight spaces.

Palmer is widely regarded as the first reserve to Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka in the No 10 and right-wing positions, but Southgate must now be tempted to start him in Germany. He certainly offered much more than Foden at Wembley. If anything, it felt like Foden was getting in Palmer’s way.

That is an extraordinary thing to say, perhaps, given Foden’s seniority to Palmer, but there will be many England fans now calling for Palmer to start instead of the City playmaker.