Five dos and five don'ts for the new England manager

Was it desperation? Part of the game plan? Or just showing off? Whatever the reason, England's players at Euro 2016 attempted a seemingly-endless series of tricks, flicks and cross-your-fingers kicks to try and open up opponents who were demonstrating stubborn defensive discipline. The occasional bit of fancy footwork helped beat similar teams throughout qualifying, but in the tournament itself they came up against some of the best exponents of counter-attacking football and their approach was sorely lacking. Indeed, they looked like bunch of kids trying to knock down a wall by taking turns in throwing water balloons at it.

When was the last time an England manager strolled around with a smile and a spring in their step? Seriously, when?

Here's when: Euro '96, when Terry Venables ran the national team. Since then we've had the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson gurning, groaning and constantly moaning about this, that and the other with all the joy de vivre of an undertaker lamenting the rising price of coffin wood.

The only exception since Venables is Kevin Keegan, who started with a smile on his face – but lost it when England squandered a 2-0 lead in their opening group game of Euro 2000, and who hasn't smiled again since. The moral: laugh, but make sure you have something to laugh about.

Why would you take one of the nation's deadliest centre-forwards and play him as a winger? You wouldn't, of course. But Roy Hodgson did, with both Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge. Deploying one or other alongside Harry Kane in the deeply unfashionable 4-4-2 system could have been great; instead, they were not great. As for Wayne Rooney? His best position right now is clearly on the bench.

There's a feeling that Hodgson decided on his system; and, without any further thought, picked what he believed to be the best XI players in the country. Frankly, we're lucky that he didn't decide to play Tom Heaton at centre-half.

Michael Owen is to blame. Not just Michael Owen – also Wayne Rooney to an extent – but mainly Owen. By storming on to the scene as a teenager at the 1998 World Cup and scoring one of the top three goals of the tournament, Owen made us all believe that fast-tracking talented teenagers into the national XI worked. Six years later Wayne Rooney reinforced that idea by performing similar feats at Euro 2004.

Blooding such kids at such a young age had rarely worked before and has never worked since; if you don't believe us, check out this fascinating list of the youngest 100 players ever to turn out for England. A few jump out as players who became proven international performers – Bobby Charlton, Rio Ferdinand, Stan Matthews – but for the most part they became journeyman pros. (In addition, Charlton, Ferdinand and Matthews were all 20 before they first represented the country.)

And worst of all, the list is stuffed with players like John Barnes, Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard, who had superb starts with the national team but never went on to perform anything like as well for their country as they did for their club sides, the pressure clearly robbing them of their talent.

Half-way through the tournament, a number of FA bigwigs started talking off-the-record to journalists about how unhappy they were with Roy Hodgson's gamble against Slovakia, and effectively threatening him with the sack if England didn't get to the later stages.

That's right: half-way through the tournament the FA were undermining their own employee and spreading discord within the England camp and in the media. Simply outrageous.

Harry Kane is streaky. After a couple of matches it was plainly obvious that he had hit a patch of bad form just at the wrong time. That should have been a shame for Kane; instead it became a shame for the entire nation as Hodgson stuck with him throughout (barring the match against Slovakia).

Jack Wilshere was brought in despite having barely played - let alone played well - at the end of the season. Premier League-winning Danny Drinkwater was left at home. Wilshere was then put behind ageing striker Wayne Rooney in the midfield pecking order; Drinkwater probably watched in despair on telly.

That really isn't the way to maximize resources.

It's no coincidence that by far and away Roy Hodgson's most impressive spell as England manager came at Euro 2012, when he was given no chance at all of getting anything out of an injury-hit, controversy-stained, talent-restricted squad from whom Fabio Capello had walked away just a few months earlier. With nothing expected from them at all, England were a Pirlo Panenka away from making the semi-finals of the tournament, which would have been the nation's best showing since 1996.

And what happened in 1996? Expectations were low, in the wake of England not even having qualified for the 1994 World Cup, and the team made the semi-finals.

Similarly, in 1990, England's expectations were low on the back of an atrocious Euro '88 campaign, and the team made the semi-finals.

Hodgson got half the plan right: the disastrous 2014 World Cup was a fine step in the right direction for Euro 2016, but the manager messed it up with a perfect qualifying record. If England had stop-started through qualifying and only made it to the tournament on away goals following a ragged play-off, the team might have had half a chance.

Chris Waddle was widely ridiculed for complaining that England players were far too often seen swanning around with headphones on, ignoring the world around them like bolshy teenagers at a family get-together.

But frankly, when you see the preparations of the likes of Iceland and Wales, he's probably got a point: surely communication is at the heart of camaraderie, and camaraderie is at the heart of team-work? Ronald Koeman and Harry Redknapp have both actually made the same point as well of late. And I'll bet nobody poked fun at them like they did at poor old Waddle.

Okay, this is a bit of a catch-all. And it's the sort of thing that you feel you shouldn't even have to mention. But when the likes of Steve McClaren and Graham Taylor have held this honoured position, it's worth putting down in writing that being terrible is simply not one of the qualities required. Thanks.

Roy Hodgson didn't get everything wrong as England manager. At times he gambled, and spectacularly: the decision to throw four strikers on against Wales was proven a masterstroke, and but for some poor finishing (and great goalkeeping) his XI to face Slovakia would have left him with the sort of confident, well-rested team for the knockout stages that Italy used to beat Spain. Only when his nerve failed him, and he fell back on old habit rather than fresh thinking – such as relying on Rooney and Wilshere, or failing to change his 4-3-3 formation despite losing Danny Welbeck – did England look in trouble.