The size of Gareth Southgate's task as England manager has been underlined by new research into the nationalities of players who start Champions League matches.
All 10 winners of European Championships and World Cups since 1999, when the Champions League was expanded to 32 teams, have been in the top five countries for most starters in European club football's premier tournament that season according to the study by data analysis firm Gracenote Sports.
England's best ranking for Champions League starts was a tie for fifth with Germany in 2005 – the year Liverpool came from behind to beat AC Milan on penalties in the final.
But the Three Lions' overall ranking since 1999 is ninth, behind Brazil, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal and Argentina.
Liverpool's run to another final last season and the presence of a fifth English team in the group stage thanks to Manchester United's 2017 Europa League win helped lift England to its highest number of starters for five seasons, 26.
This was still only good enough for ninth overall, though, with World Cup-winning France having nearly twice as many starters with 49.
Several former England managers, notably Sven-Goran Eriksson, have made the link between international success and Champions League experience in the past but the data reveals just how far England lag behind.
Fifteen of England's World Cup squad in Russia started matches in last season's Champions League, while another four – Phil Jones, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jamie Vardy and Danny Welbeck – had played in the competition before. None of England's three goalkeepers nor Harry Maguire had any Champions League experience.
Gracenote's head of sports analysis Simon Gleave told Press Association Sport: "Compared to other major footballing nations, England's 26 starters in the Champions League is low. Eight countries – including World Cup winners France and third-placed Belgium – had more players starting in the competition than England last season.
"England has tended to have the seventh to 10th highest number of players over the years despite being one of only three countries prior to this season to regularly have four teams in the competition.
"The five countries (Brazil, France, Spain, Germany and Italy) who have consistently been the biggest contributors of starting players have won all five World Cups and three of the European Championships this century.
"Euro 2004 winners Greece had the fourth highest number of starting players in the Champions League that (2003-04) season. Euro 2016 winners Portugal had the fifth most players in the competition in 2015-2016."
Gleave explained that with England having one team fewer in the competition and no Scottish club present, as Celtic players have boosted England's stats in the past, the number of England starters is likely to fall this season, unless the likes of Jadon Sancho, Reiss Nelson and Jonathan Panzo can break into the starting line-ups at Borussia Dortmund, Hoffenheim and Monaco, respectively.
"England is therefore reliant on its four Champions League clubs (Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham) to provide English starters," added Gleave.
"England should retain its position in the top 10 player contributors to the Champions League this season but could well be overtaken by Italy, which has an extra team in the competition."
