Analysing Ireland 3: It ain’t what you’ve got, it’s all a matter of how you use it

When Roy Hodgson was asked recently to contrast the centre-halves England have brought to France (John Stones, Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling) with the choice Sven-Goran Eriksson had at World Cup in 2006 (Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Carragher and John Terry), he couldn’t quite bring himself to dispute the gulf in quality.

If it’s tempting to copy this notion and contrast the individual defensive talent Ireland has at Euro 2016 compared to previous eras, the current crop hardly looks promising.

Paul McGrath, Phil Babb, Denis Irwin, Gary Kelly and Terry Phelan all went into 1994 World Cup after more than 30 games with clubs in the top half of the Premier League (save Phelan, with Man City, who finished 16th).