England is getting better, because its league is dominated by foreigners

England’s players arrived in Brazil bearing a burden of expectations so light that it might have passed as hand luggage: Nobody expects anything of this England team, and that’s a blessing. The “golden generation” idea came to nothing, and although some of its luminaries – Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and, arguably, Wayne Rooney who became a marquee-name player at the age of 17 – remain in the squad, it’s clear to all that England can no longer expect much of them. This is a transitional World Cup, in which a new generation is introduced to the tournament, and England’s fortunes both in Brazil and in Russia in 2018 will be more dependent on the new breed: 19-year-old forward Raheem Sterling, 18-year-old left back Luke Shaw, midfield creators Ross Barkley (20) and Jack Wilshere (22), workhorse midfielder Jordan Henderson (23), and strikers Danny Wellbeck (23) and Daniel Sturridge (24), neither of whom could be called a classic centerforward, much less a classic English center-forward. 

Sure, England lack balance, and will probably be undone by relying largely on skipper Gerrard to screen the defense – as he proved at Liverpool last season, he’s superb at spraying passes from deep that spring traps and open up an opposing defense, but his own defensive work is decidedly dodgy. But this young squad unburdened by years of failure might just spring a few surprises.

What is clear at this World Cup, though, is that even if England football is, at best, on the cusp of renewal, English football – as in its domestic league, the Premiership – is in rude health. Most of the players in most of the squads at the World Cup earn their wages outside of their domestic leagues, but more play as professionals in England than anywhere else. There are 119 players from English Premier League clubs at the 2014 World Cup -- that’s 38 more than the next best-represented league, Italy’s Serie A (81 players). In third place is Germany’s Bundesliga with 78, and then Spain’s La Liga with 64.

England Football Association chairman Greg Dyke recently suggested that not enough English players play abroad, seeing that as a comment on the quality of players emerging in England. That concern may be misplaced, though, given what the statistics above reveal about the Premiership’s status as top among the “magnet” leagues represented at the World Cup. Remember, only one in three starting players in last season’s Premiership were themselves English – champion’s Manchester City won the title with just two England players considered first team regulars.

Those England players who do get a game in the Premiership are playing in one of the world’s top leagues, where they’re probably getting the same experiences Dyke imagines they’d get abroad – they’re playing and training with many of the world’s best players, and not one of the players in the current England squad is coached at club level by an Englishman. (Yes, yes, I know, Liverpool’s manager Brendan Rodgers is from Belfast, but as far as FIFA is concerned, Northern Ireland is a different country – more importantly, it ought to be noted that Rodgers is an erstwhile protégé of Chelsea’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, and a friend and disciple of Spain’s national team coach, Vincente Del Bosque.)

So, yes, the presence of all these foreign players in the league certainly limits the opportunities available to English lads to play for top English clubs. And yes, English coaches are increasingly rare at English clubs. You can be sure, also, that those who do come through will increasingly fit the Rodgers mold – men who turned to the almost Talmudic study of tactics and the science of the game after very short and undistinguished playing careers (Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, etc.)

All that’s happened, though, is that the Premiership has become more of an elite league, in which English players have to perform at a higher level if they want to get a game. And as much as many English fans complain, the predominance of foreign players and coaches in their domestic league has raised the technical skills and game intelligence of England players. When I first began following English football in the early 1970s, England failed to qualify for two successive World Cups – and that at a time when the only foreigners (in the football sense) in the league were Scottish, Irish and Welsh.

Stirling, Sturridge, Wellbeck, Wilshere, Barkley, Shaw and the rest have learned their trade in an English league dominated by foreign players and coaches. And they’re far better players for it. Watch.