Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon agree on England 'problem' as heat rises after Slovenia draw

Against Slovenia, Southgate brought both players off the bench as his team sought a late winner.

And both players, speaking to the BBC, have admitted the Three Lions' lack of consistency is an issue at the tournament.

"All the games are difficult in the tournament, it doesn't matter who it is," Palmer said.

"We just know as a whole we can go up some levels and yeah, hopefully we can do that."

And his words were echoed by Gordon, with the Newcastle winger admitting it was a 'problem' knowing the squad can perform 'so much better'.

"We can do so much better, that's the problem, we've got such good players," he said.

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"Training is so good every day, we do everything right and it's just not clicking.

"Hopefully in the coming days it will, because we need to really start attacking teams."

While England were subdued once again, the performances of Gordon and Palmer will give Southgate food for thought.

Both players have been strangely absent from the competition so far, with neither able to come on in matches against Serbia and Denmark.

But Palmer and Gordon both caught the eye after being introduced at the Cologne Stadium.

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Roy Keane, speaking on ITV, was particularly impressed by Palmer.

The Chelsea winger is still new to the international scene, having made his England debut in a 2-0 win over Malta back in November.

But he showed no fear against Slovenia and tested Jan Oblak with a low shot late on.

Keane believes Palmer has the 'X-factor'.

And the former Manchester United star consequently thinks the 22-year-old should get more minutes, with England set to play in the knockout stages of the tournament on Sunday night.

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"The one I'm always excited to watch is [Cole] Palmer, he always has that X-factor," said the 52-year-old.

"I know we were wondering why he didn't come on in that first or second game, but every time he gets the ball it looks like something is going to happen.

"There was certainly a bit more flow to their game the last 15 or 20 minutes.

"They need to show more quality in the attacking areas, but I do love Palmer, I think he's amazing."

Turning to fellow pundit Gary Neville, he continued: "Would you want to mark Palmer?

"You wouldn't want to play against him. He's so unpredictable, he can beat a man, go left or right.

"A lot of brilliant players affect the game, when he came on, you knew he was going to affect the game.

"Every time he got it, we were looking at him. I'm hard to impress and I'm thinking 'something is going to happen'.

"Every time he gets the ball you think something is going to happen.

"He will think he should be in that starting XI. He won't think 'I'm learning and I'm glad to be here'. He will be looking at Gareth, like the big personalities do, thinking 'get me out there.'"