For all the broader urgings towards youth, boldness, digging the new breed and all the rest of it, Roy Hodgson has so far been rather sober on the subject of England's World Cup squad, which will be unveiled to the public on Monday 12 May. Privately Hodgson has spoken of the virtues of experience. Against this there has been the timpani of voices off calling for Hodgson to be bold, even at times – and bizarrely – to treat the coming tournament as a kind of developmental project with the next Euros in mind.

There is, of course, an opposing view. England have a narrow band of emerging talent. Above it is a senior generation that never got out of first gear in Germany in 2006, thrashed about in reverse in South Africa, and simply ran out of juice in Ukraine two years ago. There is always a tipping point in the process of renewal, after which picking younger players stops being a gamble and becomes instead simply picking your better players; and when to stick with ageing might-yet-be's looks less like safety-first and more like a lack of ambition. Perhaps England are at this point now.

Gary Lineker is hardly known for his flightiness but England's most successful World Cup footballer of the past 40 years is among those who believe Hodgson would simply be treading the sensible path by choosing en bloc the platoon of talented younger players who have caught the eye this season.

"We should go with youth, I don't think we've got anything to lose," Lineker said this week at the BBC's World Cup launch. "Six months ago I'd have said I'd be really surprised if we got through the group stage. But now all of a sudden we've got an emergence of exciting young talent that we haven't seen the like of in donkey's years. They're coming through actually a bit quicker than I thought they would. They're not in their prime yet but it offers you a little bit of hope."

Picking this England squad comes down, as ever, to a few key choices, albeit on this occasion – Carrick or Henderson? Barkley or Young? Shaw or Cole? – these are choices that drastically alter the range of age and experience. There is a happy corollary to this. In every position, even defence, these young players are generally quick, forward-looking and technically adept, qualities reflected in Lineker's own preferred 23-man squad.

"Raheem Sterling is a sensational footballer. Adam Lallana is not that young but he's also a delightful footballer. Daniel Sturridge has got a bit about him, he's got a bit of arrogance which is important for a striker. Ross Barkley's really, really talented. So all of a sudden you've got the makings of something. I hope [Hodgson] gives them their head. We're not going to win it but you might find two or three that have got that capability of dealing with it mentally, which is the other really important thing with international football."

Lineker would have picked Jay Rodriguez had he been fit. He thinks Luke Shaw should go to Brazil ahead of Ashley Cole and that Everton's John Stones is as good a choice as any for the reserve centre-back. It is a seductively bold approach: England are short of pedigree in the centre of defence so why not fill the gap with a deliciously talented 19-year-old who already carries the ball in the style of an international footballer and who has the poise and physical gifts to blossom into an unusual kind of England player, the type of ball-playing central defender England rarely produces but which is so obviously required in the mannered environment of summer tournament football?

Indeed, with Sterling likely to start in midfield after a thrillingly penetrative second half of the season, there could be three teenagers in an England World Cup squad for the first time, not to mention the youngest England World Cup squad since 1966. Lineker's version of Hodgson's squad – the youthful option – would feature 10 players under the age of 25 and 13 with fewer than 20 caps.

As a point of contrast, Fabio Capello's 2010 squad had four players under 25 and just five with fewer than 20 caps. This has generally been the story with England World Cup squads. In 1998 Glenn Hoddle picked 10 players over 30. In 1990 Paul Gascoigne was England's youngest player at 23. In 1982, with a generation of Admiral-shirted favourites hanging on for their first World Cup, Ron Greenwood took nine players over 30 to Spain.

Yet from a certain angle Hodgson is right to sound his caution klaxon. Youth for youth's sake has never been a particularly inspiring argument in any field. Tournaments are not won by tyros but generally by a core of well-seasoned players. Against this, nobody actually expects England to win anything here – as Lineker points out, victory would be "a miracle" – but questions of tone and texture and basic morale are important, too. The fact is there has been a sense of congealment around the national team since 2006 and the plateauing out of the Baden-Baden generation. In part this is also to do with the tactical trajectory of England's play, which since 2002 has seem them finish each tournament out on their feet, passed to death by more possession-savvy opponents. But there has also been a blockage in personnel, a sense of yawning over-familiarity.

It would still be a surprise if Hodgson went all the way with this. England have only ever taken five teenagers to a World Cup: Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott in 2006; Michael Owen and Rio Ferdinand in 1998; and Johnny Haynes in Switzerland 44 years earlier (only two of these, Owen and Lennon, actually got a game). Yet it is hard to dispute that Sterling, Stones and Shaw, not to mention Lallana, Barkley, Wilshere, Henderson and Sturridge, all deserve being in the squad on merit alone. Hodgson is cautious by nature, not to mention publicly accountable for his team's results. But for once presenting a youthful face to the world has started to look like simple good selectorial sense.

Lineker's 23-man squad

Goalkeepers Joe Hart, Ben Foster, Fraser Forster

Defenders Leighton Baines, Glen Johnson, Chris Smalling, Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, John Stones

Midfielders Adam Lallana, Raheem Sterling, Steven Gerrard, Ross Barkley, Jack Wilshere, Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Frank Lampard

Forwards Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge, Danny Welbeck, Rickie Lambert