We Must Temper Expectation For The Young Lions

While the Premier League season was winding down, something very unusual and quite brilliant happened, the nation as a whole agreed that expectations heading into the World Cup should be minimal. We have for many years, gone into major tournaments on the back of some serious hype. This hype was mainly associated with the golden generation, which never even reached the medal positions. Who anointed them? Was it the media or was it self-appreciating?

However over the course of the last three weeks, the momentum train has swept the country once again. We are now reading quotes about these young lions and how they can take Brazil by storm. How we have changed to become a dangerous attacking threat that can pounce on anyone at anytime. Disregard the fact we looked lethargic in victory against Peru and devoid of any creative spark against Ecuador and Honduras. Now we don't want to go to Brazil with a defeatist attitude, but we must remember the initial benefit we pinned to Brazil. Young players get tournament experience so we can complete in 2016 at the Euro's and in 2018 at the next World Cup.

It's easy to look at the club form of Sturridge and Sterling and be excited, we should be excited about our players, and if you're not, why are you watching? However one's club form rarely mirrors itself to international form for England. Let's not get carried away and lets maintain our, ‘this is a learning curve and any danger we pose to the potential tournament favourites is a bonus' ideology. We are in large part one of the middle pack teams, we're not favourites but we're also not whipping boys. As we've seen many times before, some of those teams can go on to win the tournament.