England World Cup 2018 squad: Four lessons from history manager Gareth Southgate should follow

Southgate will name his 23-man World Cup squad on Wednesday

Do not take two players for every position

With managers required to pick 20 outfield players for World Cup squads, many fall into the trap of selecting two-per-position, believing such a policy covers for injuries that could derail progression through the tournament. This is the wrong thing to do.

Let’s take Fabio Capello’s final 2010 squad as a case in point, specifically the defence. Glen Johnson was the only out-and-out right-back; John Terry, Matthew Upson, Ledley King and Michael Dawson covered the two central positions; Jamie Carragher could play both centrally and at right-back, while Ashley Cole and Stephen Warnock were Capello's left-backs.

Of those eight defenders, two - Dawson and Warnock - were not needed for a single minute. They watched from the bench while Theo Walcott, a player more likely to be used as a game-changing substitute, watched from the sofa at home after being cut from Capello’s 30-man provisional squad.

Would it not have been preferable to have Walcott to call on when 2-1 down to Germany in Bloemfontein? After all, Carragher’s versatility meant there was no need for Dawson - a late replacement for the injured Rio Ferdinand - to be called-up. The cover in the centre was there but Capello failed to recognise it.

The key to international tournament squad-building is versatility. There is no need to pick two-per-position, especially when selecting defenders.

Kyle Walker’s new-found ability to operate as a right-sided centre-half could free Southgate to select another player in the midfield or forward line, though right back Trent Alexander-Arnold is the one likeliest to benefit, supplying cover for Kieran Trippier.

Pick players who play regularly

A rule that really should be a given when picking a squad for any international tournament, but one that has been overlooked too often by England managers in the past.

The obvious example here is Sven-Goran Eriksson’s 2006 World Cup selection of Walcott, who at the time had yet to make a senior appearance for Arsenal.

The 17-year-old went unused by Eriksson in Germany, a wasted selection, and the experience did not even help him for future tournaments on the horizon. England failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships and Walcott was, as mentioned, left out by Capello for the next World Cup.

A more recent and perhaps less defensible example is Jack Wilshere’s selection for the 2016 Euros.

The Arsenal midfielder apparently did enough to impress Roy Hodgson in his 69 minutes of Premier League football during the 2015/16 campaign. Title-winner Danny Drinkwater, who clocked up 3,039 minutes in Leicester City’s midfield during their extraordinary campaign, was left at home.

This year, there are questions regarding Danny Rose, who has played second-fiddle to Ben Davies at Tottenham Hotspur this season, and Adam Lallana, who has less than 400 minutes to his name after a injury-hit campaign with Liverpool.

Select players for the present, but with an eye on the future

Chris Waddle may not like the idea of “building a team for Timbuktu”, but given the time constraints on international managers, anything that helps to build familiarity between their players should be considered.

Applying flexible age boundaries with a view to future tournaments is sensible, so long as the younger players have earned their place and stand a fair chance of playing.

To return to 2010, Capello named the oldest squad of any at the tournament with an average age of 28.7. Two years later, Hodgson’s 2012 Euros selection - at 26.0 - was the tournament’s third-youngest. Only nine of Capello’s 23 were retained.

Several of Hodgson’s additions - like Leighton Baines, Stewart Downing and Ashley Young - had been of a good age and in reasonable form two years earlier, yet they were overlooked for bit-part players coming to the end of their careers.

Would it not have been wiser to select them for South Africa to build a greater sense of continuity?

With Southgate considering the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Alexander-Arnold and even Harry Maguire - 25-years-old now, therefore at his peak in 2020 and 2022 - the current England manager appears to acknowledge the importance of shaping his team for both the present and the future.

Forget reputation and form, focus on tactical suitability

International managers, and England managers in particular, are often accused of selecting players on reputation.

Eriksson infamously hampered his early and mid-2000s sides by playing David Beckham, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard while sticking rigidly to a 4-4-2 formation that suited the former pair but not the latter.

Unlike the Swede, Southgate is not burdened by a wealth of star talent and it is somewhat easier for him to fit square pegs in square holes, but he has at least made sure to use a system and style that suits the talent at his disposal.

His favoured 3-4-2-1 set-up allows him to field England’s three best players - Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling - in their optimum positions. If Sterling can quickly tap in to Kane and Alli’s pre-existing understanding, then England’s meagre attacking returns under Southgate should improve.

John Stones is the man most likely to be in the centre of England’s defence in years to come and he has been accommodated by the adoption of playing out from the back. This has meant sacrificing Gary Cahill - who would likely be a starter under Eriksson, Capello or Hodgson - but Southgate has shown courage in his conviction.

The general sense is one of a manager working with limited resources but determined to make those resources fit a coherent plan. If that means cutting experienced internationals like Cahill loose, then so be it.

For once, an England manager’s World Cup squad should be tailored to his tactics. Whether those tactics work, of course, is another question.