DAN ASHWORTH,

the FA’s technical director and as such the overseer of some very successful age group teams, fears a traditionally strong english art is being lost. Defending. ‘Once we were talking about the fact that we didn’t have enough creativity,’ he said. ‘We had no players who were able to keep the ball, who could beat players. Yet now we’ve shifted it. We have lots of exciting players but where we lack depth is defenders.’ Many would agree. One look at Gareth Southgate’s england squad now would suggest that the days when a manager was deciding between centre halves of the calibre of John Terry, rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Ledley King and Jamie Carragher are gone. Any of those would stroll into Southgate’s group. Yet this is not the mountain the FA’s technical department faced 10 years ago when coaches were bemoaning an absence of skill and guile. Defence can be taught. Most of the players listed here started their schoolboy careers as midfielders and dropped back. It is considerably harder to go the other way. When england had a dearth of creativity the future looked bleak. Tacklers? We’ll find some. The next Carragher or Campbell is out there; it’s just that, right now, he thinks he’s Lionel Messi.