A new attitude in English football

It's often said you can have either the best league or the best national team in the world, you can't have both, but with a promising generation of English players coming through ahead of The European Championships in the summer can England attempt to prove this wrong?

I'm not here to argue about if the Premier League is ACTUALLY the best league in the world in terms of entertainment or quality, and this year it is really difficult to support that argument, aside from Liverpool. Nevertheless The Premier League is financially the most successful league in the world and boasts the best worldwide viewing figures. It has been this way prettu much from the first days of The Premiership and English football fans and even more so The Premier League themselves have been more than happy to remind people of this fact.

On the other hand, England's history in major tournaments has been underwhelming and painful to say the least, penalty shootout heartache, red cards at vital moments and complete capitulations in group stages just about sum up the past 20 years or so. Until the World Cup in Russia, a young and exciting team emerged and exceeded most rational people's expectations by reaching the semi-finals and very nearly reaching the final, until a very disappointing second half and extra time performance against the real dark horses of the tournament, Croatia.

Nevertheless, this is an exciting time to support England, in the Premier League so far we have seen young players feature for “top teams” on a regular basis. The average age of squads this season is at an 11 year low of 26 years old. Chelsea being forced, thanks to their transfer embargo, to bring through the likes of Abraham, Mount, James and Tomori, who have all become key players in their season and have all made appearances for England since. Arsenal seemingly choosing to focus on youth and give major game time to the likes of Saka, Nelson and Willock and Manchester United giving chances to Greenwood and Williams who have both been arguably two of the brightest sparks in their season. Liverpool have possibly the most prigious young English talent in Alexander-Arnold and Tottenham's most successful team in recent memory has featured young English talent heavily in Alli, Winks and of course Kane. Maybe these are signs of a change of tact from the “top clubs” that could benefit both England and the players hugely.

The “big six” now aren't the only teams providing players for the national team either. We have Southgate to thank for this who seems to be focusing more on performances rather than who you play for. Players such as Lewis Dunk, who has impressed for Brighton ever since they were promoted into the Premier League, Nathan Redmond who shows glimpses of quality each season and Tyrone Mings who has been the linchpin in Aston Villa's defence arguably wouldn't have got oppourtunities under previous England managers.

But there is one trend that is exciting me more than this, and it is that English players are no longer afraid to go abroad to get minutes and to expand their football education. It has always seemed bizarre to me that English players just didn't travel, you can count on one, maybe two hands the amount of English players who have played abroad and made a success of it, the only recent example being Beckham. He won La Liga and the Supercopa with Real Madrid, won Ligue 1 with PSG and made around 30 appearances for AC Milan whilst on loan from L.A Galaxy. Before him you need to go back to the 90's, for the likes of David Platt in Italy or Steve McManaman in Madrid. Nevertheless, now young players are choosing to leave the comfort of the academy to get minutes that they most likely wouldn't get in the Premier League.

One player who stands out in this regard is Jadon Sancho, leaving Manchester City to join Dortmund was a brave move, but one that has without doubt paid off. He has made 63 appearances for Dortmund across three seasons, clocking up 25 goals, becoming the youngest player to reach this landmark in Bundesliga history, and 29 assists. At the tender age of 19 this is a ridiculous return on Dortmund's investment, and on the will undoubtedly make a tidy profit on when the time comes for him to return to the Premier League. He has also become one of England's key players, someone who rightly defences will be planning for specifically come tournament time.

Players have followed Sancho's example too, Highly rated Joanthan Panzo joined Monaco after being at Chelsea since a child and has now been loaned to Cercle Brugge where he is making regular appearances. As has Marcus McGuane who left boyhood club Arsenal for the sunnier climes of Barcelona and now finds himself expanding his education in the Eredivisie. All players who their clubs definitely didn't want to lose, but couldn't afford to or didn't want to give them a chance in the first team.

For many other countries this really isn't new, as we are all aware most of the top foreign players find their way onto our shores and are what make the Premier League what it is. How many prodigious talents have we seen emerge in the Premier League and how many have been at the cost of English players' development. The fact that it has taken until now for players to really consider moving abroad an option is baffling to me.

When we look at tournaments, and tournament winners they have almost exclusively had squads with players who plied their trade around all the major leagues. The exception to prove the rule so to speak is Italy in 2006, whose squad was made up entirely of domestically based players.

I feel that having players in your squad that are familiar with or able to adapt to different footballing cultures, tactics and ideas can only be a positive thing. Whether it's a player who is going to be up against a club team-mate or a player they have faced in their league, this can help the manager when giving specific instructions or just make them more aware of the potential danger. We have seen examples of this against us, most famously, or infamously, Ronaldo's wink at Euro 2006 after getting Rooney sent off in the Quarter-Final, do we really think he hadn't told his teammates that Rooney was there for the taking if they wound him up enough?

This new trend could also see the end of a habit that has blighted the English team for a long time too, again in my humble opinion. Often players in England are rated or praised for their athletic abilities, pace or strength in order to keep up with the physical and high-tempo domestic league. Whilst other countries have focused a lot more on technical ability. If English players are getting this kind of coaching from a young age or even later in their career it could improve them as all round players and maybe extend their careers beyond what was expected by allowing them to not rely on solely on their physicality.

The gap in technical ability has been there for all to see in many cases, but the game that sticks in my mind in particular is Germany's 4-1 demolition of England at The World Cup in South Africa. People often say “But Lampard's goal?!?”, the only difference that goal would have made, for me, is that the score would have been 4-2 instead. Germany were so dominant that day, Ozil had free reign of the pitch and made England suffer, whilst the German arttackers had great fun pulling our centre-backs all over the field. I wish this was the only example but as we know there are many more, Portugal god knows how many times getting the better of us in what felt like a run of knockout games that lasted forever.

So fast forward to The World Cup in Russia where we saw a new approach by The F.A and England setup. Southgate choosing to be more flexible tactically, playing both 3 and 5 at the back during the tournament. Trusting more in younger players and combining them well with more experience. Players like Pickford, Maguire and Trippier all making real impressions in their first tournament appearances whilst Kane, Henderson and Sterling added some experience and calmer heads.

What does this mean for the England national team? Well suddenly there is a wealth of players with first team experience to choose from, allowing Southgate to focus more on which player is in the best form, rather than the name on the back of the shirt, which, in my opinion, dogged the England team selection for so long. The likes of Lingard and Eric Dier who were picked purely because of their club, rather than their performances, suddenly have to look over their shoulder, as their place is no longer guaranteed. This should surely rid the squad of what seemed to be a complacency and almost arrogance about their performances in an England shirt.

England have arguably one of the most exciting generations of young players coming through in world football and if they continue the trend of pushing their boundaries and horizons the future could be very bright for England indeed, in a time when England seems to be separating itself from the rest of the world and becoming more isolationist it is a nice buck in the trend, and who knows maybe one day it will finally bloody come home.