England's Golden Generation vs. the Current Crop - comparing the squads

Midfield: David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole vs. Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Harry Winks, Declan Rice, Ross Barkley, Mason Mount

Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard often struggled to play together for England

Like in defence, England’s Golden Generation was blessed with a crazy amount of world-class talent in midfield. In his prime, playing for Bayern Munich, Owen Hargreaves was a terrier of a holding midfielder, capable of harrying the opposition and winning the ball back before feeding it to his more attacking teammates. In the 2006 World Cup, he was named England’s Player of the Tournament.

In David Beckham (Manchester United and Real Madrid), Sven-Goran Eriksson could call upon both an inspirational captain – nobody will forget his last-gasp goal against Greece to send England to the 2002 World Cup – and a right-sided midfielder who could offer world-class delivery from both set-pieces and open play. It was Beckham’s free-kick that earned England their second-round victory over Ecuador in the 2006 World Cup.

Both Eriksson and Fabio Capello could never quite get the best out of central midfielders Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea) and Paul Scholes (Manchester United); Scholes was wasted on the left side of midfield and retired from international football after Euro 2004, while Lampard and Gerrard were perhaps too similar to play together, but any of the trio would almost certainly walk into today’s side.

Joe Cole (Chelsea) meanwhile failed to live up to his massive potential, but in the 2006 World Cup, he was excellent and scored an outstanding goal in a group game against Sweden.

The amount of names representing Southgate’s modern era, on the other hand, should tell you that the current manager hasn’t quite worked out his best midfield yet. The 2018 World Cup saw Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) acting as both a holding midfielder and a deep-lying playmaker, with Dele Alli (Tottenham) and Jesse Lingard (Manchester United) further forward as attackers, but that system lacked creativity and the ability to retain the ball under pressure.

Since that tournament, Southgate has switched to a different system, with a deep-lying double-pivot protecting the defence and allowing more room for a more advanced playmaker; a combination of Henderson, Declan Rice (West Ham) and Harry Winks (Tottenham) has usually been used in the deeper positions, while Ross Barkley (Chelsea) and Mason Mount (Chelsea) have tended to act as the playmaker.

The system remains a work in progress, however, and while it may prove to be more balanced than the Gerrard/Lampard combination in the future, right now the nod goes to the Golden Generation for their depth in talent.

Advantage: The Golden Generation