England's Roy Hodgson opts for youth – now he must play them in Brazil

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/12/roy-hodgson-england-world-cup

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Welcome to the World Cup, then, Roy's Rug-Rats. Hodgson's Hatchlings. Or perhaps more accurately Roy's Reluctant But More Or Less Unavoidable Youthfully Bold World Cup Squad. In the end there were no surprises at the grand unveiling in Luton. The World Cup squad that most people thought was going to be the World Cup squad is now officially the World Cup squad. And for once it is likely to be received almost unanimously as a good thing as, at the head office of Vauxhall, home of the budget Cavalier, England's manager dusted down his plumed hat, fluffed out his ruff and galloped into suburban Bedfordshire to announce a squad that is by most sensible measures the youngest England have taken to a World Cup since 1966.

It was a very Roy place to be doing all this. Sven-Goran Eriksson chose the Café Royal. Fabio Capello issued his last squad by curt and functional text message, presumably only once his aides had located a suitably disdainful scowling angry man emoticon. Roy, though, opted for the jaded 1980s swish of Vauxhall's UK headquarters and the kind of low-ceilinged conference hanger more accustomed to gatherings of provincial biscuit salesmen or the world's top 150 tray-table cup-holder manufacturers. Here he was preceded on stage by a cardboard presentation pack that looked like it might contain a list of factory options for the new Insignia Sports Tourer, but which instead carried with it the expected list of names.

It is a squad arranged in the usual two banks of eight with a four-man striking tag-team. The difference, of course, is in the ages and total caps of a squad in which only six players have been to the World Cup before, and where that distinct band of young talented English players to emerge in the last eight months – thrust like beautiful weeds through the Premier League's concrete ceiling – have more or less been selected en bloc.

Certainly it is a much younger squad than that picked last time by Capello, a kind of scowling park keeper of an England manager, constantly shaking his fist, clipping ears and ordering the kids to get off the grass. Capello picked 12 players aged 29 and over, as opposed to five here. Joe Hart and Aaron Lennon were Capello's juniors at 23: Hodgson has nine players the same age or younger.

The temptation of course will be to paint Roy as a kind of Stringfellow-ish figure, frolicking gleefully in the Copacabana swell in his dental floss thong, flanked by a bevy of fresh-faced talent. Except, of course this isn't what's going on here at all. In reality Hodgson is to some degree a hostage to youth, nudged by a series of events – injury, form, club selection – into picking a squad made up not just of his younger players, but of his best players, or even in some cases pretty much his only players. The fact remains: if not these players then which? With the exception perhaps of Ashley Cole for Luke Shaw and Michael Carrick for Ross Barkley, this is simply what Hodgson had in front of him, a fact he all-but acknowledged in Luton.

"The've imposed themselves upon me," he sighed at one point. "It's not a question that I ever set out to take them." A bit later he explained the process of youthful revolution like a man very wearily accepting that his tomato crop has been infested with aphids. "Unfortunately – I don't know why I said the word unfortunately, that's not correct – you cannot ignore what people are doing in their club sides," Hodgson explained, before adding: "We shouldn't get too hung up on the fact there are some youngsters in there." Fat chance Roy.

With this in mind, quite how England's squad of dutifully borne tyros line up when they get to Brazil is another matter. It would be easy enough to cull a Euro 2012-style rump of seasoned scufflers out of this squad. The fact is of the kids here – and it is a bold squad, really they are – only Raheem Sterling is a likely starter in Manaus. For all the talk of new dynamic, skinny-jeaned Roy, this is still a tournament where well-grooved seniors tend to prosper. Plus of course this is still England, land of compromise, a place where even a squad as youthful as this as this can be presented not as a vibrant statement of intent but instead like a rowdy stag weekend it looks increasingly likely you're just not going to be able to get out of, but which, all things considered might just end up being OK.

For all that Hodgson, who was calm and lucid and convincing in Luton, deserves credit for picking it. Just go on and play them now Roy. You know you (sort of) want to.