Lee Carsley has found the ingredient England were missing under Gareth Southgate

Lee Carsley remains the frontrunner for the permanent England job after seeing his side claim a win over Finland, with the interim boss aldready solving one of Gareth Southgate's long-running issues

One of the many positive aspects of Angel Gomes’ presence in this England set-up is that he has not yet had enough of his own publicity to believe in.

If you had to fire up a popular search engine when Gomes was called up for his senior debut last month, you were not alone. Far from it. After all, who tunes in to watch Lille, week in, week out?

Manchester United fans probably remembered him from his prodigy years but those were a good while ago. And while he played a key role in the successful under-21 generation, only the most ardent of England followers closely monitor the juniors.

He is no billboard player, no marquee figure, no commercial phenomenon, no Jude Bellingham, no Cole Palmer, no Phil Foden. And Gomes is no fledgling, having turned 24 in August.

But he is what every team needs - a selfless, uncomplicated conduit between defence and attack. Over the Gareth Southgate years, a lot was made of England needing to be more positive, of England needing to be on the front foot.

But there are other ways to achieve that goal than by just stacking the line-up with the showcase attacking players. And one of them is to have a central midfielder, whose first thought is to THINK forwards.

That is exactly what Gomes does. He collects possession on the half-turn, always looking for a momentum-building ball. On one of the few occasions he did not do that in Finland, he actually gave away possession - a rarity for him - and conceded a chance to the home side.

It is, though, not often he looks backwards, and his assist for the Jack Grealish opener was a thing of beauty. It was a short pass of Lionel Messi standard from a player of Lionel Messi proportions. It was a pass that would have had the likes of Pep Guardiola purring.

Like everyone else in this workmanlike win, Gomes hardly set Helsinki on fire but he was a key component of a midfield that looked a little more balanced than it did against the Greeks last Thursday.

It still wasn’t overly dynamic and Palmer, in particular, had another fairly anonymous night. And from a defensive point of view, it remained too easy for the opposition to have joy in wide areas, leading to crossing opportunities that gave Fredrik Jensen a couple of good chances to earn Finland some reward.

At least Harry Kane dropped back to help now and again, those occasions being the highlights of the captain’s contribution. Having missed the Greece debacle with a knock picked up in his last club game, Kane might have been better off having a longer rest.

He certainly toiled for long periods of this game and never posed a serious goal threat. Kane will surely return to full sharpness but while it is almost impossible to think of him not being an automatic choice, he needs a couple of vintage showings in next month’s games in Athens and against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley.

Kane made way for Ollie Watkins and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s magnificent hit and Declan Rice’s goal, before Arttu Hoskonen's late header, made sure of a reasonably emphatic win over limited hosts that should quieten the noise around whether or not Lee Carsley wants the full-time gig.

When it comes to Carsley’s suitability for the permanent role, the jury is probably still out. But whatever happens on that score, Carsley has - despite that aberration against the Greeks - brought some significantly positive things to the England table. And introducing the wider public to the talent of Angel Gomes is most definitely one of them.

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