Formation
Before we go through the rest of the team, I would just like to say: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, England will be playing 4-4-f***ing-2.’
In all seriousness, the traditional system suits our national style of play. It is what we played at Italia 90, France 98 and in the Far East in 2002 – three very good campaigns that all ended in narrow defeat at the business end of the tournament.
People will argue that football has changed since then and that 4-4-2 is archaic.
However, the game has not changed as much as people pretend it has and we don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing.