Kyle Walker and Tottenham’s Defensive Core at Heart of England’s Euro 2016 Drive

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 17, 2016

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Victory can mask a lot of ills. England ultimately deserved to beat Wales 2-1 in Thursday's Euro 2016 Group B encounter, but the fact that it took them until stoppage time to see off a limited outfit said a lot about their own issues.



The win does give manager Roy Hodgson some leeway to figure out what is next for his team. They face Slovakia next on Monday, and there is work ahead to ensure the kind of impact Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge brought off the bench against Wales can be felt from the start.

Uncertainty persists around England's attack, but there is a more welcome consistency further back. The Tottenham Hotspur defensive core of Eric Dier, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are notably revelling in their European Championship experiences.

Where Hodgson has been going back and forth over who and what works best further forward, this trio's involvement had looked inevitable since the spring.

Dier made his England bow in last autumn's friendlies with Spain and France. His winning goal and a mostly solid showing against Germany in March confirmed in Hodgson's mind that the 22-year-old would be his best bet anchoring his midfield.



Rose's confident debut display up against the world champions also impressed. With Walker performing well a game later against the Netherlands, the notion that Tottenham's full-back pair could be transposed successfully into the national team began to take hold more firmly.

The individual stories of how these three got to this point do not have the Hollywood appeal of Vardy's rise from non-league, nor the delight of the precocious Marcus Rashford's sudden entry into the limelight.

However, they are just as reflective of different aspects of the football experience and are undoubtedly informing their involvement at Euro 2016.



Walker's joy after Daniel Sturridge’s late winner (see above) was great to s...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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