The Three Lions

“I have seen what our younger age groups are doing against top nations,” he said. “To have an understanding of the players in the system, and to have seen other countries at those age groups and what we need to improve upon, that is an advantage for me.

“My big concern going into the summer’s finals was the lack of big‑match experience of a lot of those players [in Roy Hodgson’s squad]. We don’t have a squad like we had in 2004 or 2006, with a load of boys who had won the Champions League or played in its latter stages. That experience is going to have to come over time. I am going to have to accelerate that. But maybe, collectively, a bit of humility won’t be a bad thing: to admit this is where we’re at, but let’s look and see what is achievable and go for it.

“I’d love to sit here and dress it up a bit more. As a coach you always have to be positive in your thinking and the idea is to improve this team as much as possible as quickly as possible. But you can’t fast-track everything. What is important is I see a desire to improve, and a high potential, within this squad. It is a few years since we’ve had as this many English players playing in the Champions League, so they will benefit from that experience of top-level football and taste that pressure.”

“When you do have a permanent captain, as soon as you leave him out of the team it becomes a massive story. My ideal is what we had at Euro 96: six or seven guys who are captains of their club, who are men, who stand up and take responsibility on the field. You’ve got to have those characters who step up at different moments. I know some countries have leaders in the group, and the most capped player is captain on the match-day. There’s a lot for me to think about moving forwards on that.”

“With the under-21s over the last few years, there’s a group of senior players who, if standards aren’t met in various areas, are on to it. That shows you’ve got a good culture in the team. That’s far more powerful than the headteacher coming in and being the one that cracks the whip. That’s the standard you want, because they drive each other. If I’m a centre-back, and other centre-backs are in the gym at 10am, I want to be there at 9.30am because I want to be doing a bit more than him to get in the team. That’s a high-performance culture.”

Jay29 wrote:

Strikers: Jermain Defoe (Sunderland),

rincon wrote:Seeing this squad I ask the UK crowd, is there any initiative from the FA (or equivalent) about youth teams or local talent or whatever else to improve English football?

This seems dire.

RealGunner wrote:Lol no

Hasn't been there in the last 50 years.

Firenze wrote:think we have the most players from a club in that squad

seen pundits debating Defoe's inclusion in the squad earlier, don't really see the problem since Kane is out and Defoe is, as ridiculous as it sounds, probably a top 3 English striker at 34 or 35 lmao.

English football doesn't like bright in the future, 10 years ago I remember being outside playing football every day, would run into groups of people doing the same at the park or football grounds, had multiple football clubs running here and there during the week..nowadays you rarely see it, kids would rather be playing FIFA on their PS4. I think the FA need to be working closer with schools.

Firenze wrote:all of those players would start for Pool and Arsenal though