Reasons to be fearful

Back-up bowling

This is the biggest single issue for England to address, and it's almost impossible to see how they do it. Chris Woakes, Jake Ball and Moeen Ali offered neither control nor penetration for Joe Root - who, worryingly, was himself England's third-best bowler in this Test.

Injured finger or not, Moeen was desperately disappointing. It would have been a worrying effort in a normal, pace-dominated Gabba Test. In one where Nathan Lyon was such a huge factor, it becomes even more so.

He's worth his place in the side right now as a pure batsman, but the whole balance of the side requires him to be a genuine member of a five-man attack. He was outbowled by Root. England will not win the Ashes that way.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad cannot do it all by themselves. Something must change.

Bairstow and the tail

There are good reasons why England have decided to go with Jonny Bairstow with the tail. In normal circumstances, he is very good at batting with the tail. He runs hards, finds gaps, farms the strike and can whack the ball as hard as anyone. With Stokes at six, Moeen at eight and Chris Woakes at nine, Bairstow is a perfect number seven.

But he's also probably England's third-best batsman. Can they afford the luxury of him batting at seven when Ball, Broad and Anderson cannot reasonably be relied on to survive 30 balls between them against the inevitable bumper barrage that awaits them.

Twice in Brisbane, Bairstow was dismissed trying to force the pace. It feels like a waste of his talent.

Alastair Cook

He's had five mediocre Ashes campaigns and one incredible one. Number seven is not off to an auspicious start after a tentative nick behind for two and an early mishook to the deep for seven that evoked rather too many memories of four years ago for comfort.

Pitch battle

England will console themselves with the correct assessment that they were bang in this Test for three days. The gloomier assessment is that on those three days Brisbane often felt more like Headingley.

When the Gabba bared its teeth as the sun shone and pitch quickened, England were blown away with bat and ball.

In reserve

The problem to top off all the other problems: there aren't any obvious solutions. Neither Ball nor Woakes have done anything to merit selection for the Adelaide Test. Yet what option do England have? Would Craig Overton or Tom Curran really be any better, or offer something decisively different?

The hubris of thinking they could select a second spinner to learn the ropes in Australia has already come back to haunt, and the reserve batsman is another left-hander for Nathan Lyon to go tat, who also has a questionable technique against very fast bowling.

It's hard to see what England can do other than go with the same again in Adelaide. Assuming everyone is fit, Overton for Ball is perhaps the only really plausible change in personnel. It would slightly stiffen the batting, but that's all.

Switching the middle-order to Bairstow at five, Malan at six, Ali at seven may also have some impact, but it smacks of tweaking the Titanic's outdoor seating arrangements.

Reasons to be cheerful

The Unnameables

Yes, the caveat about the pace of the Gabba pitch on the first couple of days in particular remains valid, but there's no doubt that half-centuries for each of James Vince, Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan is good news for England.

They have little option but to stick with that trio anyway, but at least all three now know they can at least hack it in Ashes cricket. England's 11 may not bat as deep as we've become used to, but there were at least signs that the top seven can do a presentable job.

Creating chances

When a struggling striker keeps missing chances, commentators are contractually obliged to note "at least they're getting chances". And England had their chances here. They were on top on at least two distinct occasions in each first innings, and while the failure to take any of those opportunities is a major problem, it's a better one than they faced when being destroyed in 2006 or 2013.

Broad and Anderson

Their brilliance in the first innings here - the damage was done by the second dig - is in danger of being taken for granted when set against the struggles of the rest of the attack.

Both were absolutely sensational in the first innings, proving they can bowl in these conditions and hurt an Australian batting line-up that still retains a soft underbelly.

In the pink

Australia are obviously big favourites for the second Test after a victory of this scale. But there can be little doubt that a combination of Adelaide, floodlights and a pink ball give England their best possible shot of redemption.

Yes, the idea that Broad and Anderson will get the ball to sing is a double-edged sword with Mitchell Starc around, but if England can't get 20 wickets they're done for anyway.

If it's flat during the day and swings under the lights, England have a great chance if the fates fall their way.

Root's captaincy

It was genuinely exciting to see an England captain with real plans and keen instinct for the game as Root shuffled things around, rotated his bowlers, changed his fields and never stopped thinking on his feet. Did everything he try come off? No, but enough did. Australia's batsmen are not flawless - well, apart from one of them - and England have the plans and means to expose those flaws under a genuinely inventive leader.

First Ashes Test links

• First Ashes Test report
• First Ashes Test recap

Brisbane Five-fer: Day four

The decisive swing

After three days of cut and thrust, ebb and flow, the decisive swing of the pendulum finally arrived on a torrid day four for England at the Gabba.

England, on top as recently as lunchtime yesterday and still very much in the game until just before tea today, only just managed to avoid defeat inside four days.

When things go wrong for you in Australia, it can all happen very quickly. It was desperately disappointing for England, especially after so much hard work, but these are the realities of Test cricket here and they must regroup quickly.

Half empty/half full

The fact remains, though, that England can regroup. This is an ultimately disappointing defeat. But everyone loses here, especially when modern schedules force them to arrive here undercooked and underprepared. While the eventual margin of defeat may well be 10 wickets this has not been the crushing blowout of four years ago when England were Mitchell Johnsoned out of the series almost before it had begun.

England’s disappointment here is of a different kind. It will be frustration at opportunities missed; but the glass-half-full interpretation is that at least those opportunities have been created: 246-4 in their own first innings, 76-4 and 209-7 in Australia’s. Even in a disappointing second innings, the “Wobblyline” dismissal of Moeen Ali came at a time when Australia were just starting to worry about what chasing 240 or 250 might be like. (The ‘controversy’ over that dismissal, for what it’s worth, should be ended by Moeen’s own verdict: “If I were bowling, I’d want it to be out.”)

England’s batting has been more encouraging than their bowling. The new boys all now know what Ashes cricket is, and can all move on to Adelaide having shown they can handle it.

And a day-nighter at Adelaide is the perfect next stop for England. They have been left with a two-man attack in this Test and, brilliant though Broad and Anderson have been, that was never going to be enough. But if England are bowling at the right time in Adelaide, then things could well be very different there. Essentially, the point is this: after the Brisbane Tests of 2006 and 2013, 5-0 already looked a reasonable prospect. Here, it remains an outside chance. That’s something, at least.

Tailspin

Whatever encouragement England can take from the efforts of their top seven at various points across the two innings, the tail is a huge concern. For the second time in the match, they’ve been blown away and it’s hard to see how that changes. Seven out, all out is going to be a feature of England’s efforts in this series, and that’s big added pressure. Australia added 119 for their last three wickets in the first innings here; England might not get that many in the whole series.

However futile it may be, it’s impossible not to lament Ben Stokes’ absence. A six-nine of Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen and Woakes is the best in the world, but the all-rounder’s absence means as soon as the fourth wicket falls England are looking nervously down at what’s to come.

The absence of one player has turned one of England’s key strengths into a weakness, and there is no solution. The Ashes may well have been lost on the morning of September 25.

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