England manager Roy Hodgson has said that the current crop of England players are "very different" from the squad that travelled to the last European Championships.
Hodgson has named a youthful and relatively inexperienced group to take to Euro 2016 in France this summer, with Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Marcus Rashford all set for their first taste of a major international tournament.
The Three Lions had the likes of Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Ashley Cole as experienced heads in their squad four years ago, but Hodgson believes that the team has developed into a more attacking outfit in the intervening years.
"Looking back, the team [in 2012] was very different. A group of very experienced players, at club and international level, and a team with experienced defenders and holding midfielders," he told reporters.
"We were a bit short of attackers in that tournament. The last four years have seen a complete turnaround in that respect. Now we have a surfeit of attacking players, in midfield and up front, which is why I've chosen a squad that's tipped and balanced towards attacking rather than defending.
"We believe that we have so many players at the moment in midfield and in attack, who are really good players, good quality players. I didn't want to sacrifice them to sort of shore up with players who maybe might in some ways cover position slightly better but maybe don't have the qualities of the players I'd be leaving out."
Joe Hart, Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Wayne Rooney are the only survivors from England's Euro 2012 campaign that will travel to France this summer.
Barney Corkhill
