FA chairman Greg Dyke summed up the feelings of many with his throat slitting gesture as England's 2014 World Cup group was drawn. This generation of players has been England's worst in some time and putting them up against Italy and Uruguay, both hotly tipped as contenders for the latter stages of the tournament, suggests a strong possibility of England failing to make it out of the group stage for the first time since 1958, where they failed to win a single game (although they have, of course, failed to qualify at all since then). England's hopes are not quite so bleak as they may seem, though. The 2014 group is admittedly a much greater challenge than the E.A.S.Y. (England, Algeria, Slovenia, "Yanks") draw that England struggled with in 2010, but it is not the dreaded Group of Death. Fellow unseeded Europeans the Netherlands (themselves a more convincing challenger than England) must face a more threatening European and South American pair in Spain and Chile in order to progress to the last 16. Manager Roy Hodgson, meanwhile, has sensibly turned from the current mediocre generation of England players to look to the potentially far more talented next generation. Not only is this a sensible move in building for a greater possibility of future success, but also could prove decisive in giving England the edge this time around. Neither Italy nor Uruguay are as formidable an opponent as they might first appear and both have major flaws that can be exploited. Here we look at the tactics that England can use to defeat their World Cup opponents and qualify for a potentially easier Second Round tie with the likes of Japan, Cote d'Ivoire or Greece.
