Preview: Naive Gareth Southgate will be fed to Three Lions if England perish against Panama

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Gareth Southgate’s shoulder injury is not the only dislocation he has suffered over the past few days. The England manager is dislocated from reality if he ever thought the muddle of media sorts covering the national squad had washed up in Russia as a devoted assortment of neutered cheerleaders.

After a charm offensive that saw the Football Association give reporters access to the squad before the finals at St George's Park and at the team hotel in Repino by playing darts, bowls and pool together like blokes down your local, normal business has been resumed. If it ever ceased to be.

Southgate appears to be an honest and likeable bloke, but overreacted when his assistant Steve Holland was snapped clutching a team-sheet at a training session on Thursday like a can of Baltika Extra Strong

All we learned from the notes published in various organs over the past few days is that Marcus Rashford will probably play alongside Harry Kane rather than Raheem Sterling for the Group G match in Nizhny Novgorod. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is in line to replace the injured Dele Alli in midfield. This is hardly selling trade secrets.

He should have taken a note out of Nick Faldo's farcical stint as Ryder Cup captain in 2008 when he claimed his morning foursome pairings were merely lunch requests when spotted by the press..

“I was simply making sure who wants the tuna, who wants the beef," said Faldo on his way to watching Europe get stuffed.

Southgate should just have laughed off the triviality of the situation. He did say England were throwing up a few ideas and tactics on who might or might not play, but should have refrained from showing disdain for people going about their daily routine at an open training session.

"Obviously any time, if we were to give the opposition the opportunity of having our team it’s a disadvantage to us," said Southgate. "So of course our media has to decide if they want to help the team or not."

Southgate appeared to retract his statement a day later, but it remains a moot point if seeing names on sheets is any sort of disadvantage. Or if it has damaged trust as former England international Gary Neville has suggested.

Kyle Walker had his say on much ado about nothing. "As I say, you guys have to do your little bit, so if you could just please help us with that it would be polite."

If he showed the same awareness as a centre-half against Tunisia on Monday, England would never have shipped a goal in 2-1 win against a side butchered 5-2 by Belgium on Saturday.

What Southgate is really saying is that he expects the media to negate negativity for the good of the team. He expects favourable headlines when the press cliques gather to work out what the headline for the next day is going to be.

Judging by some of the fawning material that has been distributed from the front line pool and skittles, England's era of glasnost was working quite well until Holland's apparent mishap.

What Southgate cannot expect is for working journalists and photographers to self-censor. Even when England players are racing each other in inflatable unicorns at their hotel, there remains some tosh of value worth reporting about the football tournament.

England should be able to crush their Central American opponents to reach the last 16 while smoking Panama cigars even if Southgate named his side 48 hours in advance. They are probably the second worst team behind Saudi Arabia to appear at these finals, a side Switzerland walloped 6-0 in March.

England’s players should not be in Russia to make chums with the press by chucking arrows with hacks, but merely to focus on winning football matches. Favourable press will follow winning performances while impoverished displays will be berated. The media has always been an echo chamber for frustrated fans and fanboys.

As a player from the era of Paul Gascoigne in the dentist’s chair before Euro '96, the manager should know better than most what to expect. And how the mood music can change, win or lose. If England make the last eight, he will be feted as a success story.

But Southgate is only one defeat away from being transformed from likeable hero battling a bust arm to a tabloid turnip in a sling.

The feel-good factor is entirely down to England's players, not chumminess with the media that belongs to another sozzled era. Not in this one of mistrust when millionaire footballers share their information via their clubs and social media rather than opt for a quick chat with a friendly ear from their favourite hack.

If England are gazumped by Panama in Nizhny Novgorod, wait to see how this new friendly press reacts. Southgate will be fed to the Three Lions without haste. His skills with a pool stick will quickly be forgotten, but attacking the press for no apparent reason will not.

England midfielder Dele Alli is unlikely to play against Panama due to his thigh injury, manage. Alli did not take part in the team's training sessions on Friday, working on his own as he tries to get back to fitness following the knock he received in the 2-1 opening win over Tunisia.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is expected to replace Alli while Southgate faces a decision on whether to stick with Raheem Sterling in attack or give a start to Marcus Rashford, who impressed from the bench against Tunisia.

Panama will field the same line-up that lost their opening World Cup game 3-0 to Belgium in Sochi on Monday in their opening match in Group G.

Hernan Dario Gomez (Panama): "We have a certain stability and I liked how hard my team worked (against Belgium). One of our assets is the experience that our starting eleven have got by playing together regularly," he told the pre-match news conference on Saturday.

"Every coach has to ensure they are 100 percent prepared regardless of the opponent. My concern is that my players work well, that they stay true to their style of football, work hard and go for the win. Who England pick is not a concern for us. If one player isn't there, the one that replaces him is just as good."