England’s relative success in the UEFA Nations League gave Gareth Southgate and his players a UEFA EURO 2020 qualification safety net.

Funny thing, the safety net. It’s there just in case, insurance against failure, but fall into one in the glare of the public and there’s every chance you’ll look a twat.

Embarrassment would be inevitable should England require their EURO 2020 play-off privilege but their first two games in Group A showed no signs of England requiring rescue.

The nets weren’t there for as a fail-safe but to snaffle no fewer than ten England goals as they took immediate control of the group.

England qualifying comfortably is in fashion these days and the next opponent seeking to string a tripwire over the catwalk will be Krasimir Balakov and Bulgaria, who visit Wembley on Saturday.

Balakov is a symbol of Bulgaria’s footballing peak. His 92 caps included two FIFA World Cups and EURO ’96. Bulgaria’s historic run to the last four in the USA resulted in Balakov being named in the team of the tournament along with Hristo Stoichkov.

That was then. Balakov was still in the side when Bulgaria last reached the World Cup finals. They are currently 60th in the FIFA World Rankings - England are fourth - and 14 of the squad that will travel to London are based in the Bulgarian league.

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Like Southgate, Balakov has named a clutch of uncapped players for this international week. Five of them are aged 29 or older.

They’re four games into qualification already and are yet to win, losing the two most recent matches against Czech Republic in Prague and Kosovo - embarrassingly, and to a stoppage time goal - in Sofia. They were Balakov’s first two matches in charge.

All of which is to say that this match isn’t so much about Bulgaria offering a meaningful threat as about their slender potential to surprise England.

For Southgate the challenge will be to guide a team that’s focused on getting the job done collectively as well as staking their claims individually for a starting shirt.

The England manager has at his disposal three uncapped players.

26-year-old Tyrone Mings can expect some playing time either against Bulgaria or at St Mary’s against Kosovo next Tuesday; Harry Maguire and Michael Keane are likely to edge out Mings and Joe Gomez as first choice, assuming a back four is Southgate’s chosen system.

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James Maddison and Mason Mount have both been involved in the England squad before and should get a debut apiece at some point in these matches. It’s entirely possible one of them starts this match, not least because Dele Alli is absent and Jesse Lingard has left the door open for them.

The most prominent question marks hover over those midfield spots.

Jordan Henderson is likely to get the nod ahead of Declan Rice and Harry Winks but Maddison and Mount have as much of a claim to a starting place as Ross Barkley or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

One from Column A and one from Column B is what the smart money says.

Harry Kane will lead the attack flanked by Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho. All three have started the season in goalscoring form, albeit not entirely freely in the case of the captain, and Marcus Rashford simply isn’t on their level at the moment.

Jordan Pickford will keep his place in goal in front of the aforementioned back two, with Trent Alexander-Arnold at right back and Ben Chilwell potentially selected ahead of Danny Rose on the left.

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On Saturday afternoon England will play a match they can’t win but probably will. The trick is to secure the latter kind of victory and ignore the pointless distraction of the former.

There’s very little England can do in this game to knock anyone’s socks off but three unfussy points and a couple of tidy debuts would do very nicely, thank you.

England v Bulgaria kicks off at 5.00pm on Saturday 7th September at Wembey Stadium. Live television coverage will be on ITV from 4.30pm.