Collymore’s column: Luke Shaw is bang out of order, Liverpool should sell Luis Diaz and much more

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why Luke Shaw is bang out of order, why Brighton deserve a pat on the back, why English authorities need to follow Spain’s lead and much more.

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England’s poor form could mean a slow burn to glory… or glorious failure again

England’s poor performance against Iceland could be a perfect storm in terms of a tournament where the best teams always start slow and then move through the gears.

I watched Holland beat Iceland comfortably 3-0, they absolutely battered them by putting a lot of crosses in the box, but in terms of England at the moment, there are several players – John Stones and Kyle Walker to name just two – that obviously need minutes in their legs and aren’t going to get them until they go into games.

Jude Bellingham would have had a week or two off after the Champions League final to have a bit of party… Unfortunately, we don’t have six friendlies to play to give them and others the time they need.

I think that if we get to the semi-finals, for this group of players, that’s where they should be with a decent effort. Nine times out of 10 they should be semi finalists but if we have a good tournament, we should be looking to win it.

I don’t get involved in bookies odds and stuff quite simply because we’re in Britain and more people are going to vote for their own country than they are for others, but I do think there’s a very nice healthy dose of scepticism around the country which the Iceland result has only added to.

The weather is a bit flat still, we haven’t started the tournament yet… the expectation isn’t really there because people haven’t got used to the three games in a day which football fans love and which sets the tone.

I watched Portugal against Ireland and they look very, very good. I watched the Dutch, they look good. I watched the French, they look good. If we get to the semi-finals, we’ve got to be at our very, very best to win it.

At the moment, for me, it boils down to a few things. Several players are undercooked, one or two players are visibly ageing in front of our eyes, and we’ve had a mini experiment about who’s going to play number 10.

I fully expect by the end of the Denmark game on match day two, that we will be in a really good position to know whether this England team are struggling or whether we are…