England out to dispel Euro doubts against Serbia

England's attacking arsenal sees them start Euro 2024 as the bookmakers' favourites to end a wait since 1966 to win a major tournament, but doubts persist over the Three Lions ahead of Sunday's opener against Serbia.

Gareth Southgate's men have won just one of their last five matches -- a run that includes a 1-1 draw with North Macedonia and a shock 1-0 home defeat to Iceland in their final warm-up match before flying out to Germany.

England are still expected to cruise through a group that also includes Denmark and Slovenia.

The biggest question over England's credentials to be European champions is at the back as injury has robbed Southgate of his settled back four from previous tournaments.

Harry Maguire failed to make the squad due to a calf problem, while Luke Shaw is included as the only natural left-back despite not having played any minutes for club or country since February.

John Stones is therefore even more crucial as the one experienced centreback at international tournament level, but the Manchester City man has also been dogged by fitness problems this season.

Kieran Trippier, a right-back by trade, is set to start against Serbia at left-back.

Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi is the leading candidate to partner Stones for his first major tournament start.

England's defensive deficiencies have already been exploited by Brazil, Belgium and Iceland in 2024.

And Serbia have the firepower to hurt them with their powerful strike pairing of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic.

Vlahovic, who has scored 18 goals in 38 outings for Seria A side Juventus this season, is drawing inspiration from Iceland's 1-0 victory over England in a friendly at Wembley last week.

"No one is invincible," Vlahovic said ahead of Sunday's match in Gelsenkirchen. "We looked at the match against Iceland and there are things that can be copied from them, because they beat them at Wembley in front of 80,000 people. Everything is possible."

Southgate's paucity of options at the back are compensated by the abundance of weapons in attack. The quartet of Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane is the envy of Europe.

However, Southgate is still to find the right balance to help them perform on the international stage to the same level as they have for their clubs this season -- the quartet scored a combined 114 goals in club football in the 2023/24 campaign.