Does England’s performance matter or is it all about results? Our experts give their verdicts

England will take on Switzerland in the European Championship quarter-finals on Saturday after beating Slovakia 2-1 in a dramatic last-16 tie on Sunday.

But celebrations have been muted by the poor quality of performances produced by Gareth Southgate’s team, sparking fierce criticism and a subsequent backlash from the players.

Telegraph Sport’s football writers ask whether entertainment is actually important, or fans should just be grateful to see their team progress. You can join the debate in the comments section and vote in our poll below.

Results eclipse entertainment

In an ideal world England would ally results with good performances. No one should want to watch boring football with a lack of real identity. That goes without saying. But, right now, it has to just be about the result more than the entertainment. That is all that matters for England.

Quite frankly the most attractive teams do not usually win tournaments anyway. Not recently. Not with Argentina at the last World Cup or Italy when they defeated England at the last Euros. The problem for England is the criticism will be even greater if they do not win the trophy and they must accept that. It is win or bust and them’s are the stakes when you play this way.

Good teams do not play badly

The old football cliche that good teams can still win when playing badly – variously known as grinding out a result, or finding a way – has always been deployed as a grand distraction. Good teams do not play badly. Some days things go against them. But they have patterns of play and a system they can fall back on. Bad teams end up getting bad results. In short, the quality or otherwise is defining. England are not playing well and sooner or later that will be expressed in their results.

For instance, England beat Germany at Euro 2000, a result that was monumental in terms of the opposition. But in the end the team’s performances would be their undoing. That feels where England are at the moment. They need a system that works. They kept the ball against Slovakia but they did not make anything like enough chances. Slovakia had an xG of 2.2 to England’s 1.95.

Southgate’s faith in his XI and those players, from game to game and then through games seems to have become the thing. As if the faith is driving the team rather than vice versa. He is not going to change now. The comeback on Sunday will have felt to him like affirmation. So it will be up to the players now.

Results business ended long ago

It used to be said football is a results business. That may have once been true, but it has not been for some time. Club managers get sacked almost by the week for not producing good enough football. So it is not surprising that a similar kind of pressure has moved on to the international scene. Now we keep hearing about tournament football. But what is that? Is tournament football playing poorly while winning? Is it relying on a moment of genius, rather than producing a style and pattern of play that produces more regular chances and greater entertainment? Spain do not seem to think so and neither did the French over recent years.

Fans have got used to their clubs being slaves to entertainment, so nobody wants to see the national team, full of players who excite each week during the domestic season, dirge their way to a final. It is true that nobody will particularly care about the quality of football if England win the Euros. But they sure as hell will if England fall short, even if they get to the final. Just as football being a results business is a load of rubbish these days, let’s throw the phrase ‘tournament football’ into the bin and bring back some enjoyment. We might even win the bloody thing with a smile on our faces at the same time.

What happened to bringing the joy?

Hero of the hour he might be, but Jude Bellingham had some nerve describing legitimate criticism of England at this tournament as “rubbish”. The label would be more accurately attached to this team’s four displays at the tournament so far. With the exception of the first 35 minutes against Serbia, they have been wretched, shapeless, clueless.

The momentous feat in 2021 of reaching a first final for 55 years was at least adorned with a couple of imperious performances, against Germany and Ukraine. Where has the joy been this time?

Gareth Southgate obstinately persists with a starting XI that is patently not working, mindful that England can reach a European semi-final without playing opponents ranked higher than 19th in the world. I am finding the “but this is knockout football” refrain increasingly wearisome. The manager desperately needs to inject some pizzazz for this campaign to be remembered with any affection.

Do not panic – defining moment is yet to come

When I think back to the last Euros, automatically it is the win over Germany that springs to mind. Or the start to the final when Luke Shaw’s goal gave hope that a major tournament win was coming home. But the goalless draw against Scotland has been long forgotten.

This is a theme with England at major tournaments. Some of us are old enough to remember Gazza’s tears at Italia ’90 but the group stages were a bore. It does not really matter how England play in the early stages, just getting through is enough. The defining moments come later. For England at this Euros, that moment could yet come.

We do not need pretty, just a structure would do

England’s performances have been largely terrible and this is simply not sustainable if they are to progress any further in the competition. You can fluke your way past Slovakia with a 95th-minute wonder goal but you cannot win a major tournament like that. On current form, England will be ripped apart by the first serious team they face.

No one is asking for England to suddenly start playing a sophisticated brand of passing football, similar to that produced by Spain and Germany so far at Euro 2024. It does not need to be a Pep Guardiola-esque style of play – but there does need to be some structure, a defined shape and, at the very least, a more compact approach without possession.

If anything, I would be in favour of Southgate adopting a less adventurous approach, especially against a Switzerland team who are more than capable of dominating possession in the quarter-final. Defend well, attack quickly. It is not particularly pretty but it is better than the current state of affairs.

Euros glory will erase any memory of 94 miserable minutes

England fans have had enough glorious failure to last a lifetime. There was a degree of harshness to elimination in almost every major tournament of my youth: 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004. Then there was the inglorious failure phase (2006, 2010, 2014, 2016) before Southgate and three near misses.

What we have not seen much in England’s history is a team playing poorly and managing to scrape by. Think Greece 2004, Portugal 2016, Argentina 2022 if you take off your rose-coloured promotional Messi glasses. Perhaps this is the national team’s final form? I am all for it. No one will remember a terrible group stage and 94 miserable minutes against Slovakia if England can somehow go all the way.

Boring football can win tournaments – it just needs balance

How many international tournaments are won by teams playing free-flowing, attacking football from first game to last? It is a different sport to the club game – especially the technically superior Champions League – and even those World Cup and Euros winners rightly lauded for their excellence such as France in 1998, Brazil in 2002 or the Spanish side between 2008 and 2012 had to occasionally eke out narrow wins.

Greece and Portugal became European champions after sending the continent to sleep, the Portuguese even failing to beat (shock horror) Iceland in the group phase in 2016. Whether attacking or defending, the key to going far is balance. That is where England are failing. The best defence usually wins, so there is nothing wrong with pragmatism. The problem for England is they do not resemble a well-drilled unit in defence or attack, relying on a moment of brilliance from Bellingham rather than any distinguishable or co-ordinated patterns of play.

Southgate on borrowed time – with or without the handbrake

A few minutes into added time of the 90 minutes on Sunday, Southgate was surely on the brink of leaving England. It was an abysmal performance, and though England produced a defiant response to recover, it only spared their manager from even further scrutiny.

The performances do not seem to be getting better, they are actually getting worse. Perhaps Southgate has stumbled on a formula with his substitutions such as Cole Palmer and Ivan Toney, but Switzerland will be a huge test this weekend. They are well organised and shrewd, and have players to hurt England in key areas. I would love to see England take off the handbrake but unfortunately under Southgate this team is going in reverse.

Bore your way to the Championship

I am old and cynical enough to know that England have played well and lost so many knockout games. There have been so many valiant failures and hard-luck stories, whether it is Argentina in 1986, West Germany in 1990, Argentina in 1998, the various quarter-finals against Portugal and, of course, the Euros final against Italy three years ago.

So, as bad as England have been and as painful as it is to watch Southgateball, I have come to the conclusion that the result is all that matters. England did not play well in numerous games in 1990 and 96, they were very poor at times, yet those are revered tournaments of my childhood. If they can grind and bore their way to becoming European champions, bring it on.