'England's Wembley shambles a serious mis-step for Carsley'

England's interim manager Lee Carsley gambled with his team selection - and potentially his future - when he rolled the dice against Greece at Wembley. He walked away empty-handed and embarrassed.

Carsley could have been forgiven for playing it safe, with his credentials to succeed Gareth Southgate on a permanent basis bolstered by two wins from two in the Uefa Nations League.

Instead, straddling that fine line between being brave and being foolhardy, Carsley decided to throw it all up in the air with an attacking game-plan that looked thrilling on paper. Perhaps it should have stayed exactly there. It looked an ill-judged, flying by the seat of the pants, piece of management from the first moments of a humiliating 2-1 loss to Greece.

Carsley's response to the absence of injured captain Harry Kane was to dispense with a recognised striker when he could have used either Dominic Solanke or Ollie Watkins, choosing instead to pack his side with the attacking talents of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka.

The result of Carsley's experimentation was an unseemly shambles, a confused tactical mess that was desperate defensively, with Greece having the ball in England's net five times only to see three ruled out for offside. Two from Vangelis Pavlidis counted, condemning them to defeat.

England's heavily front-loaded team could only muster two shots on target, one in the third minute from Bellingham and the other his equaliser three minutes from time, even then Carsley’s team were unable to hang on for a point they barely deserved when Pavlidis scored the winner deep into added time.

What this means for Carsley, who looked to be moving unhindered to his coronation as Southgate's successor, remains to be seen. But make no mistake: this was a serious mis-step, and he accepted full responsibility for the shapeless fiasco that unfolded at Wembley.

He even caused confusion post-match when he said "hopefully" he'd be returning to the under-21s, but, when pressed, he insisted "nothing had changed" and he was not ruling himself in or out of the job.