Former Manchester United and Everton star Wayne Rooney believes England could emerge as strong contenders for the 2022 World Cup, should Gareth Southgate managed to work with the current crop of players for the long run. The Three Lions reached the semi-final stage for only the third time in their World Cup history during the summer but they could not progress further after they were beaten by Croatia.

Despite this, Southgate has been lauded for the efforts by the country’s faithful and Rooney feels the nation should look forward to making progress over the next four years to make a better challenge for the next World Cup, he said: “The maturity the team showed was fantastic and unfortunately they couldn’t get to the final and have a chance of winning it.

“But I think they had a great tournament, a lot of positives, and that will stand them in good stead going into the next tournament in two years’ time. You know, two years down the line, I think those players will have a bit more experience, and I just hope they get the game time in England and at club level. If they do that then I’m sure England will be in a very good position for the next World Cup.”

England may have reached the last four of the tournament in Russia but there remain critics regarding their performance against the elite nations. The Three Lions lost both of their competitive matches versus Belgium at the World Cup including the third-place play-off and they have since endured another disappointing result after being beaten 2-1 by Spain during the opening game of the newly formed Nations League.

As such, there has been a sense of frustration shared by the manager himself and it will be interesting to see whether the Three Lions can increase the creativity in the attacking department before the next major tournament which happens to be the European Championship in 2020.