The Road to Success in the World Cup for England

The last time England won an international tournament is the 1966 World Cup which was 52 years ago but do they have a chance this year?

Probably not but it’s good to dream.

The reason why I said is this is not because of the team selection but the way the team plays. Even with the golden generation with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham, England failed to win a major tournament.

At the time, these players were bitter rivals in the domestic league and did not play well together. While this issue has been resolved in the current England squad, the problem now is the style of football they play.

Their European rivals, France, Spain and Germany all play beautiful football and work well with each other which resulted in international triumphs while England failed to exit the group stages in the 2014 World Cup and lost to Iceland in the 2016 Euros last-16.

To be fair under those two tournaments Roy Hodgson was the manager which should have been sacked after the 2014 World Cup.

On the other hand, the under 20 and under 17 England teams both won their respective World Cups which shows a promising future for the squad.

However, the current manager Gareth Southgate gave more young players a chance to participate in this World Cup like the 18-year-old right back Trent Alexander-Arnold and the 22-year-old Dele Alli playing in the central attacking midfield position.

While this sounds like a promising squad for the World Cup and might accomplish what the golden generation failed to do so, England is a long way from winning the World Cup due to the tactics the manager uses.

The game against Nigeria has been the first time England scored two goals in a game since October but accomplished several clean sheets along the way which shows England play a defensive style of football.

This is probably due to the emphasis on defensive plays in the Premier League with Chelsea and Leicester winning the title by playing defensive but lethal in front of goal. Therefore, England needs the lethality in front of goal to end the game.

My prediction is England will draw to Tunisia, beat Panama but lose to Belgium so accumulating 4 points which should be enough to qualify but I believe England will be one of the weakest teams in the last-16. But do not write England off because this year could be the year of shock like Portugal winning the 2016 Euros from a one-goal victory.