In the aftermath of England’s loss in the Euros final to Spain, Cole Palmer is coming off very well.

He scored a great goal after coming off the bench, and at full time had people comparing his stats with Phil Foden and other England players who had started every game.

Of course this is inevitable – there are always going to be trade offs when you have a squad as talented as England’s.

Plus if you get brought on for the end of games, you’re always going to be around for more of the goals. But there’s no denying, Palmer can feel short changed by playing just 149 minutes at the tournament after a sensational season with Chelsea.

As we said many times in the tournament, we didn’t mind Palmer off the bench. In a way, that’s a role that suits him best. He’s a risk taker, and you want him in the team at times when he’s got license to shoot and play killer passes every time he’s on the ball. In knockout football, that tends to be the last 20 minutes, plus extra time. So why not use him then, especially when it means he comes on fresh and everyone else on the pitch is tired?

That’s especially true when the player ahead of him, Bukayo Saka, is one of the best in the world in his position.

The problem was more than Jude Bellingham, playing in a role Palmer could have taken up from the start of the game, was really who was struggling. But Gareth Southgate could hardly leave out the star of the show. Palmer playing instead of Bellingham might have given the team the spark they needed to actually control games rather than win them just on moments.