This is not Jordan Henderson’s fault, but the moment when Gareth Southgate’s England plan may finally come to fruition is when he is no longer such an integral member of the side.

Henderson did well against Holland last week. He may even be England’s captain at the World Cup. And, if he is, he will fulfil his role with the usual diligence and selflessness. He will work hard, he will hold his position, he will use the ball to the best of his abilities; but it will not be enough.

To get out of the group, yes. England can overcome Tunisia and Panama just as they are and then the result against Belgium is largely immaterial.

Jordan Henderson will use the ball to the best of his abilities; but it will not be enough

Their knock-out round opponents will come from Group H and there is little to choose between Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan. England may well be happy in that company, too.

Yet in the quarter-finals it is different. If all goes to form, England will probably be matched with Germany or Brazil, at which point the limitations in midfield, in particular, are going to show.

There is only so far a team can travel without a gifted footballer at the heart of the team, a player who can keep possession and dictate the pace and flow of the game. England do not have that man. Henderson is not a fit and nor are his contemporaries.

Jack Wilshere is the nearest but is not at the level of, say, Toni Kroos and, even if he were, it is very hard for a manager to scheme his strategy around a player who could get injured crossing the tarmac to board the plane. Making Wilshere critical to England’s World Cup is a risk Southgate cannot afford to take.

So there is, in all probability, a limit to England’s ambitions right now. While Henderson is still the pivot of England’s midfield there is only going to be so far this team can go before games are taken away from them.

Making Jack Wilshere critical to England’s World Cup is a risk the boss cannot afford to take

It would need a stunning plan, and extraordinary shifts at the back and from the forwards, to overcome the absence of a playmaker. Henderson is doing all he can, but even on his best days the flaws are visible.

He made 91 passes against Holland, but 76 were sideways or backwards and only 15 moved the ball forward. Of those 15, just 10 were successful. Meaning Henderson’s accuracy suffers the more expansive he tries to become — and this was in a non-competitive game when he probably had more time on the ball.

Eric Dier, who could well be Henderson’s partner in the biggest games if Southgate plays safe against the stronger nations, is no more inventive and the attack-minded options, such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who started the move that ended in Jesse Lingard’s goal in Amsterdam, are still not the type of individuals who dominate play.

Adam Lallana could not be relied upon to hold his position, Jake Livermore is willing but very average, and it appears Southgate was unimpressed with Danny Drinkwater’s decision to stay at Chelsea when called up to the squad towards the end of last year.

Of the younger options, Harry Winks has played six minutes of Premier League football for Tottenham since December 16, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek played a minute for Crystal Palace in their last match at Huddersfield, his comeback after an injury sustained in December.

He did well against Germany in November, but can hardly be saddled with being England’s Andres Iniesta in time for June, having missed the handful of opportunities to play international football since. Southgate may have to go with what he knows.

Gareth Southgate may have to go with what he knows and should be cut a little slack

And therefore, should be cut a little slack. For the first time since the days of Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle, an England manager is trying to take the team in a new, and ambitious, direction.

Sven Goran Eriksson got England organised but, like Roy Hodgson, the football was functional. Fabio Capello had England looking good in qualifying, but lost his nerve and his way at the tournament in South Africa.

Steve McClaren came with big plans to change England’s system of play, making it more flexible, but one bad night in Zagreb frightened him off.

Southgate has had his scares, too, but is determined that England will evolve. And remember, in central midfield, Venables had Paul Gascoigne, Hoddle had Paul Scholes — if Southgate could choose from options like that, his problems would be solved. Instead, he has to find other routes to goal.

His forwards try to move the ball quickly, his defenders play out from the back. He used Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier inventively against Holland, and the experiment worked, meaning more new ideas will be entertained with less scepticism.

Undoubtedly, there is progress. If England are going through a relatively barren scoring spell — three goals in five games — that is because between the defensive and forward units is a patch of rough terrain.

Undoubtedly, there is progress but England are going through a relatively barren scoring spell

No wonder England’s manager is so anxious to use the flanks, or to find ways for Henderson to get the ball in to the front players soonest.

Of course, lose to Tunisia and Panama and optimistic talk appears shallow. No matter the limitations of his squad, Southgate should be able to steer this team from Group G, even if they end up playing second fiddle to Belgium. Do that, however, and whatever happens next — even defeat — must be tempered by an acceptance of the ambition of his project.

Right now, this is a waiting game. Southgate is improving what he can but in other areas must make do until the player that makes the whole system fall into place comes along. He needs a playmaker. Until he gets one, England can never quite go forward as they should.

Danny Rose’s final ball was poor on Friday. He seemed to think the pitch at the Johan Cruyff Arena was 50 yards wider than it was.

If this continues, Manchester United’s Ashley Young has to be a better option, certainly in the matches in which the onus will be on England to attack.

The flanks are too important to this team to waste good positions.

Danny Rose seemed to think the pitch at the Johan Cruyff Arena was 50 yards wider than it was

Antonio Conte was right in saying it is not his concern whether Gary Cahill makes the World Cup squad.

His job is to do what is best for Chelsea, not indulge Cahill’s personal ambitions. Anyway, if Cahill was playing well enough to be in the England squad, he would most likely be in Chelsea’s team, too.

If he is not, it suggests Southgate has better options elsewhere.

Apparently, Jose Mourinho’s bullying of Luke Shaw - and feel free to place mental air quotes around that statement - may affect Manchester United’s pursuit of Gareth Bale this summer.

Let’s wait and see, shall we? If Bale is no longer required at Real Madrid and finds his elite Premier League options limited to Old Trafford alone, one imagines the agency that represents both the Welshman and Shaw, may be able to hold its nose, drag the reluctantly deal over the line, and take one for the team. They’re troopers like that.

Real Madrid and Wales forward Gareth Bale has been linked with a move to Manchester United

It's so glib to sneer at Manchester United for joining women's revolution

Tracey Crouch, another in a long line of over-promoted Ministers for Sport, took to the Commons floor and welcomed the news with a sneer.

‘May I just actually take this opportunity to congratulate Manchester United Football Club, who have finally dragged themselves into the 21st century and announced that they will be having a women’s football team,’ she said.

It was pretty much the standard, unthinking reaction. Better late than never, was the consensus; or, about time too.

There is, however, another way of looking at it. That Manchester United Women was an idea whose time had come; a perfect example of the organic growth the women’s game needs if it is to become lastingly successful.

Too much of the debate around women’s football is spent in dead ends: wage parity with men’s teams that generate revenue in tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions. Prime-time broadcast slots for games with crowds measured in the hundreds.

Manchester United are set to take the historic step of forming a professional women's team

This is genuine, attainable, growth. Manchester United feel they are missing out. They have seen the rising popularity and interest in women’s football and think they need to be part of that.

Equally, there is a pragmatic concern. Once the two-tier Women’s Super League is up and running next season, any club wishing to join will have to start down the pyramid.

This is the last chance for a club with good facilities and a ready-made professional structure to get in on the ground floor. Manchester United have applied to join the second tier: organic growth there, too. They know it will take time to build a club who can compete with the best in the country.

Manchester United need to walk before they can run. The club must develop in their own time, at their own speed.

So this is a very good thing for women’s football, a sign that the game cannot be ignored, but also that like all sports it must be allowed to progress and mature.

The news deserved more thought than it got from the Minister for Sport, a sentence that could have been written many times across many decades.

Root has to be much smarter

A lot of blame is falling on white-ball cricket for making England increasingly weak in the Test arena, but game management remains a simple matter of intelligence.

When Joe Root was struck on the right index finger by a ball from Trent Boult in the final over of the fourth day in Auckland, the smart move would have been to temporarily retire, seeking treatment.

By the time his injury was inspected on the pitch, there was time for no more than the two balls left of that day’s play. Allow Craig Overton to see them out, head back to the hutch and re-emerge the following morning, fresh and rested.

Joe Root was struck on the finger but decided to carry on and was dismissed next ball

Instead, Root stayed put and was dismissed next ball, England’s hopes of saving the match going with him.

There was a decent bit of tail-end resistance on the last day, but it was always likely to be in vain without the captain. Had Root been available, who knows? New Zealand needed three wickets with just over 30 overs remaining.

Make that four wickets and an unlikely, undeserved escape could have been on — particularly if one of the players still at the crease was the captain.

This is nothing to do with the one-day game sapping technique, resilience or strategic thought. It was a purely rotten call. If Root is to achieve anything as England captain, he has to be smarter than this.

One of the things Gareth Southgate should call a moratorium on before the World Cup is the ceaseless charting of his players’ appearances at club level.

Not form, because form matters — but when they play, if they play, how many minutes they play, and whether this means they are overcooked or under-prepared. England players are either one or the other.

It was once feared Marcus Rashford could burn out, now we worry he is lacking game time

They’re never just right, like the Goldilocks of international football — this one’s playing too much, this one’s not playing enough — and it just stacks up excuses for failure. One moment, it was feared Marcus Rashford could be burned out, now we worry he is lacking game time.

Similarly, if it really matters whether Joe Hart is in West Ham’s team, then we might as well let England be run by a committee of 20 Premier League managers, because Southgate’s preferences are irrelevant. It is what it is: just get on with it.

Last chance for Lee to salvage Masters dream

Not including the special exemptions that are more to do with exploring new markets than merit — Shubhankar Sharma, a 21-year-old from India is this year’s lucky beneficiary —there are 18 ways to qualify for next month’s US Masters.

Lee Westwood has, as yet, not made it through one of them. He is one of just a trio of players to record three top-three Masters finishes in this decade, and has also been in the top 10 twice.

A year ago, he was one shot short of a score that would have equated to his 15th straight Masters qualification. Yet now he is 90th in the world and his last chance of a berth is at the Houston Open this week. He needs to win it.

There are 18 ways to qualify for The Masters and Lee Westwood must win at the Houston Open

So, while Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam will always be able to play as former champions, Martin Kaymer qualifies as part of a five-year exemption for US Open winners and the same for Jimmy Walker, world No 95 but victor in the 2016 PGA Championship, Westwood may be on the outside looking in.

That does not mean he will never return to Augusta, but it rather pricks the idea that a great athlete’s time will come given patience.

Tottenham, with a crucial Premier League fixture at Chelsea on Sunday followed by an FA Cup semi-final on April 22, should take note. They start making it happen, or the good stuff will eventually pass them by.

Mark Jenkins, chief executive of West Brom, is appalled by the parlous state of the club’s finances.

He says there is no more money for wages. That’ll be why those players were so keen to start up that mini-cabbing business in Spain then.