At least they’ll have an excuse now.
It’s back: the hype.
Biennially, there seems to be a sort of cleansing ritual in England, a national acceptance that maybe, just maybe, the footballers in the country just aren’t good enough.
It’s refreshing, it’s necessary, but it’s fleeting.
Ahead of every tournament, although we’re promised it won’t happen again and that realism will take charge this time, people start to get carried away with themselves.
The 20 stages of English hype before every single major tournament https://t.co/dmWGmym5A9
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 30, 2016
It might be a friendly result, it might be the club form of a number of untried bolters, it might be that the rest of the continent just aren’t that good but it happens.
The hype begins as a bold bit of confidence from one pundit until, eventually, it’s universally okay to say that England should be winning the bloody thing.
Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy might only have eight international goals between them but the pair are being tasked with leading the country to their first major tournament success in 50 years. And it looks like they’re both in line for starts anyway.
England assistant manager Ray Lewington was pictured in Wednesday’s Sun walking through the streets of Chantilly with his notes on the team there for all to see.
In their last friendly against Portugal, England began with a diamond formation with Wayne Rooney playing off Kane and Vardy but it seems as if the Manchester United skipper is being considered for a deeper role.
It’s clear that both Rashford and Sturridge are considered only as back-up strikers and that Eric Dier’s place is safe – with no-one else there to do his role.
Lewington’s scribbles suggest that the country can line up a number of ways but it potentially shows you who’ll play where if each player is deployed – poor Ross Barkley having to make do with a position out wide right.
When life immitates art, eh? Or at least fans of Malcolm Tucker and The Thick Of It might agree anyway.
