Gareth Southgate’s provisional plans for England’s opening match of the World Cup can be revealed, with Harry Maguire favoured over Gary Cahill in the proposed starting XI, no place for Eric Dier in midfield and Ashley Young beating Danny Rose to the left wing‑back role.

Southgate has set up his team in training to operate with Jordan Henderson as the holding midfielder, which would mean Dier being restricted to a place on the substitutes’ bench in Monday’s game against Tunisia in Volgograd. Young has been awarded a place in Southgate’s provisional lineup and, barring a late change, Maguire has been preferred to Cahill in one of several borderline calls, despite the Chelsea captain’s improved recent form.

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Cahill was one of Chelsea’s more impressive players in their FA Cup final victory against Manchester United and followed that up with the man-of-the-match award in England’s warm-up game against Nigeria at Wembley. However, Southgate has been using Maguire in training to the left of John Stones and Kyle Walker in a central defence made up of three Yorkshiremen. Cahill, in turn, has lined up with Southgate’s back-up players when the first-team bibs have been handed out.

As expected, England will play in a 3-3-2-2 system that will have Raheem Sterling operating centrally alongside Harry Kane in attack and be heavily reliant, in the absence of orthodox wingers, on Young and Kieran Trippier breaking forward as attacking wing-backs. Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard have been chosen to play as England’s advanced midfielders and Marcus Rashford will be a substitute even if the Manchester United forward is fit, as expected, after the knee injury that has stopped him training since the squad arrived here, outside St Petersburg, on Tuesday.

That means Southgate is working on a side that will have nine players making their World Cup debuts, with only Sterling and Henderson out of the likely starting XI having been involved under Roy Hodgson in Brazil four years ago. Even without Rose or Dier, Southgate’s team would have a strong Tottenham flavour, with Kane, Trippier and Alli representing the team from White Hart Lane, but the proposed England side will not feature a player from any of the other London clubs.

Southgate and his players have Friday and Saturday by the Baltic Sea to finalise their plans before flying to Volgograd to start acclimatising to the hotter weather. The manager has already shown he is not afraid to place his trust in inexperienced players and, if he keeps to his training-ground plans, that will manifest itself again in his team for England’s opening assignment in Group G.

Maguire, for instance, is a relative newcomer to the side, with only five caps but the Leicester centre-half is one of Southgate’s favourites because of his ability to play out from the back. Maguire’s emergence is one of the reasons why Southgate decided Chris Smalling could be cast aside and, barring any late twists, the former Hull player is in line to start ahead of Cahill, a player with 60 caps over an eight-year international career.

Jordan Pickford’s status as England’s first-choice goalkeeper will be confirmed in the Volgograd Arena and Southgate has chosen Alli and Lingard because the manager believes they carry more of a threat to the opposition than Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Fabian Delph.

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Although the two understudies played impressively in the 2-0 win against Costa Rica in Leeds last Thursday, Southgate wants players in that position who will make it their business to get into the opposition penalty area and, if necessary, run beyond the strikers. On that front Alli and Lingard are viewed as superior in a system designed, by Southgate’s own admission, to compensate for the fact that England do not have a natural playmaker in midfield.

Instead the emphasis will be on Lingard and Alli to provide close support to the front two by playing between the lines. “It’s the position between their midfield and their defenders where it is hard for their defenders to pick you up,” Lingard, one of those making his first appearance in a major tournament, said. “But it is also playing behind the midfielder, who is always on the half-turn and that makes it hard for him to pick you up. It is always something I have done from a young age. I had to keep out of the battles and the tackles [because of size], so to play between the lines and in space, that was where I was most dangerous.”

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The emphasis will be on playing with speed and energy, with Young and Trippier encouraged to advance in the wide positions, Sterling and Kane dovetailing in attack and Alli and Lingard given the freedom to break forward. Henderson will have to sit back if, as now seems likely, he is selected as the deepest-lying midfielder. Dier has been a regular for England, captaining the side three times in the last eight months, but the system means there is space for only one player to operate as what Southgate describes as “the pivot”.

Above all Southgate has emphasised the need for England’s players to relax after all those years when they appear to have been “weighed down” – to use Fabio Capello’s description – by the national team’s shirt.

“You’ve just got to enjoy it, embrace the moment,” Lingard said. “You are with your team-mates playing football and it is a job you love doing. Southgate has come in with the mentality that, if we play with freedom, play without fear, we will enjoy our time more. So that is what we are going to do – enjoy our football, play with no fear and play exciting football at the same time.”

England’s provisional starting XI (3-3-2-2): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Henderson, Young; Lingard, Alli; Sterling, Kane.