None of the big guns have wowed me ..England could be the next Leicester

REMEMBER the season when everybody thought Leicester couldn’t possibly win the title?

Although it’s still early days at this World Cup, I’m beginning to think the same way about England.

The more I try to convince myself they can’t possibly reach the final or even win it, the more I realise I’ve seen nothing in the tournament yet to discount that possibility.

They couldn’t, could they? That’s what we all said about Leicester in 2015-16.

And although I wouldn’t book Gareth Southgate into Buckingham Palace for a knighthood just yet, Russia so far has not proved a great showcase for the favourites.

Germany (Mesut Ozil, pictured right) ? Lost their opening game against Mexico. Still got it all to do.

Spain? Conceded three against Portugal and only scraped past Iran.

France? Maximum points, but hardly convincing. Brazil? Stumbled against the Swiss.

Argentina? Thanks for coming.

A week into the tournament four years ago, England had been knocked out and were packing their bags.

This time, the winners of Group G (almost certainly England or Belgium) should be thinking, “Hang on a minute, we’ve got a real chance here”.

Just like Leicester in the title race two years ago, when all the big guns were in transition – a polite way of saying they were having a bad season.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game against Panama, Southgate’s only selection dilemma should be whether to start Marcus Rashford ahead of Raheem Sterling.

After saying Rashford deserves to start, following his impact from the bench against Tunisia, I have to add there is a strong case for keeping faith with Sterling. It would be a big call for Southgate to drop Sterling after one game. When England went off the boil against Tunisia, it was a collective thing, not down to one player misfiring.

Would it destroy Rashford to start on the bench against Panama, knowing he is a banker as England’s impact player if they are struggling to break down the group outsiders? Highly unlikely.

Would it damage Sterling’s confidence to be left out after one game of the tournament? It’s a bigger risk, although it’s worth noting Southgate stood by the Manchester City forward when he reported late for World Cup duty at St George’s Park.

Whoever starts against Panama, I expect England to win – and that’s the most important part of the equation.

One trap Southgate must not fall into, in a four-week tournament, is to pick one player and save another for the probable group decider with Belgium.

Don’t look too far down the road and lose sight of the next hurdle – it’s always that one that trips you up. If I were in Southgate’s shoes, I would pick my strongest team every time to try to build momentum.

But when former England captain Steven Gerrard was a guest on Five Live’s Robbie Savage’s World Cup Breakfast the other day, he said you can’t play the same XI in all three group games because it takes too much out of the players, which was a fascinating insight. (If you missed it, every show is available as a podcast).

I just hope Southgate doesn’t copy Roy Hodgson at Euro 2016 and make six changes for the sake of rotation.

He probably thought it had worked out well when England rested half their side against Slovakia then faced unfancied Iceland in the last 16.

That didn’t end well. But this time, England have a real opportunity to make serious headway.

They couldn’t – could they?

Russia has not proved to be a great showcase for the favourites

PLAYING OUR TUNE Harry Kane is mobbed by his team-mates during the victory over Tunisia