As things stand, on form and consistency the shirt belongs to Ryan Bertrand, a regular for Southampton this season and ahead of Gibbs – although the latter did start the France friendly in November. Charlie Daniels at Bournemouth has also had an excellent season, and at 29 seems to be in the form of his life. Hodgson names his squad to face Germany in Berlin a week on Thursday.

As has been the case in recent years, left-back is one position for which the English game seems to have no problem producing homegrown talent: Aaron Cresswell, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Matt Targett, Brendan Galloway and Ben Chilwell are among the current crop. The competition looks pretty sound for a few years to come.

Sam Wallace

Quote of the weekend

"12-nil is the only possible score."

Judge Jonathan Rose dips into the football lexicon to tell the jurors in the Adam Johnson trial that they should try and reach unanimous verdicts

Leicester's mantra? See ball, score goal

If you’ve ever been to a football match, you’ll be familiar with the classic pre-match warm-up routines. Some light jogging will take place. One of the coaches will take the goalkeepers to one side and drop-kick shots at them from close range. Two or three of the midfielders will stand at opposite sides of the pitch and ping long balls at each other from 40 yards. There might be a “rondo”, or some sort of compact, small-sided game. Whatever. There are hundreds.