England vs Russia: Five things we learned as England show promise, but bad habits remain

England were unrecognisable from the side knocked out of the 2014 World Cup after just five days and yet a similar story unfolded in Marseille. Roy Hodgson, at 68, holds the most coffee-stained birth certificate of any manager in France this summer and yet he has thrown together the youngest squad.

Tarred with a not entirely unjustified reputation for preferring a conservative, risk-management brand of football, Hodgson’s top-heavy troupe carry a vibrancy about them seldom witnessed in the past decade. Russia, however, were low hanging fruit and yet they still managed to penetrate a leaky back-four. For all of Hodgson’s intrepid intentions, it’s the same old story.

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A member of the Russian press pack this week gleefully informed Wayne Rooney that he had been isolated as a potential weakness by Leonid Slutsky’s backroom team; an aging roadblock on England’s good intentions. Jamie Vardy’s omission has dominated discussion - and will continue to do so - with Rooney one of those to suffer the brunt of supporter unrest.

Sat deep in Hodgson’s three-man midfield, the 30-year-old is now long enough in the tooth to bat away questions which may previously have irked his cantankerous former self. Rooney shone in his new role as England’s midfield general making Russia’s aging midfield look almost geriatric on occasion.

It’s a trait which has blighted England for decades but was harnessed as an art form by Sven-Göran Eriksson a decade ago as the Swede proceeded to waste an exciting swathe of millennial talent. England have tended to get ahead of steam at tournaments while lacking the penetration of their more clinical European rivals.

That tiresome parable repeated itself at the Stade Vélodrome as Hodgson’s boys delivered a classy performance lacking in incisiveness in the final third. Four of England's last six goals in the Euros owe their inception to set-pieces and it proved to be the case again. Despite all the positives, the inescapable feeling of déjà vu is unnerving. Gareth Bale, the hero of Wales’s opening salvo against Slovakia, must be relishing the prospect of taking them on.

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Hodgson’s grand Liverpool experiment of 2014 flattered to deceive in Brazil as Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson et al floundered on the world stage just a month after driving their club to the brink of a first title in the Premier League era. That same sorry fate befell Tottenham last season despite being galvanised by Mauricio Pochettino’s militia of English talent.

Unlike the Liverpool crop of two years ago, however, this Spurs group have injected Hodgson’s squad with a hint of youthful naivety, typified by Eric Dier’s belting opener, inoculating them from the effects of the naysayers back home. With Harry Kane misfiring and Deli Alli sliding into second-half obscurity, however, it may not always be a good thing.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu served Hodgson with a stark warning during the tepid warm-up victory against Turkey last month. For all of England’s undoubted promise going forward, defensive strife always seems to be lurking unceasingly on the horizon. The calamitous way which England surrendered a richly deserved victory in Marseille was as comical as it was predictable.

James Milner was slow to close down his man, Joe Hart came too soon and Danny Rose was outmuscled by 6’ 2’ Vasili Berezutski at the far post. It was simple, clinical and glaringly obvious. England’s wings have now been clipped on a night which promised so much. Make no mistake, any team with designs on winning the tournament this summer has to be defeating this Russia side.