Wayne Rooney, Jack Wilshere and the New Face of England

International Football is definitely enriched by its diversity of styles. This diversity often helped to add to national identities and foreign generalizations in the days where, for the average World Cup or European Championship viewer, such tournaments were often the only source of international "exposure."

The striking, physical, skillful but ultimately naive style of the hard—done by Cameroonians at Italia '90 is one of the more striking and distinctive styles in World Cup history.

Every football powerhouse has something of a rapport on the World stage. The Italians are known primarily for their cynicism, with fullbacks pushing up and providing width to support a packed midfield.

Catenaccio is a term often banded about by English tabloids after a match with an Italian side. France evokes images of the skill of two prodigious talents; Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, with his graceful roulettes and wizardry.

The Spanish are known, primarily for their recently applied possession-based disciplined pressing game. The Brazilians for their tricky flair; "Samba," the Dutch for their total football and the Argentinian "Bilardista" cynical philosophy as well as the flair of the "Menottista" philosophy.

Finally, we come to the English. What is their distinctive style? What do the creators of the game have to offer? The answer seems simple, to any veteran of English football.

The English game's hallmarks are pace, physicality and focus on work rate and efficiency rather than flair creativity and passing. Another characteristic of English football is the long-ball game, introduced to England by an Air Force commander, Charles Reep.

Reep theorized that the more you can place the ball in the opposition penalty area, the higher the probability of scoring a goal is. This discovery was quickly applied by Stan Cullis, manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers who used the style to great effect and declared, with deep consequences, that his side were the best in Europe after beating Hungarian champions Honved.

Wolverhampton Wanderers '53 was the archetypal English side at a time where creativity came from the wide men. Hancock providing crosses for forwards to score was Wolves's primary method of attack. English sides over the years, went on to dominate European competition in the late 70s and early 80s with their physical style.

Another aspect of the English game was a distrust of flair. This was perpetuated by Alf Ramsey's England side of 1966, with his "Wingless Wonders" being focused on work rate and efficiency. Ramsey ignored flair players like Johnny Haynes and Tony Currie.

To be fair, this was somewhat of a trend across Europe with Helenio Herrera's catenaccio being the flavour of the month with Inter Milan. In fact, in 1974, German coach Helmut Schon dropped creative genius Gunter Netzer for the more reliable Wolfgang Overath.

In the 1980s, a new figure rose to prominence in the English game. His name was Bryan Robson. He went to Manchester United and was a box-to box midfielder. He could win games seemingly by the force of his will.

A similar player emerged in the 2000s, called Steven Gerrard. Gerrard is the embodiment of the the English swill to win. He lacks the technique, much like the English as a whole but has the will, the strength and speed and power, mirroring the strengths of the English game.

However in the late 2000s, a new form of English player has come to the fore, rather than the fringe, which supremely talented players like Hoddle and Brooking were relegated to. This new era was ushered in by the emergence of Wayne Rooney.

Wayne Rooney is a trequartista, a No. 10, a second striker. However, he has also played on the wing and as a lone striker. He is does not have the flair, dribbling skill and touch of a Messi or a Ronaldo, but he does possess substantial amounts of skill.

Additionally, he has the spirit of a midfield bruiser, and he makes for a great tackler as well with his tenacity. He is selfless and can be the engine room talent or can be the dazzler that can win a match in a moment.

After Wayne Rooney comes Jack Wilshere.

Wilshere is a product of the Arsene Wenger Youth setup at Arsenal. Jack Wilshere is a technically-skilled, hard-tackling central midfielder. He was immense against Barcelona and was the reason Barcelona failed to completely dominate the midfield against Arsenal in their Champions League match. He is being compared to Paul Gascoigne and Xavi in his style.

The English assembly of midfielders is rolling on with technically good midfielders like Tom Cleverley, Henri Lansbury as well as Jordan Henderson coming through the ranks.

To add to that, defenders like Chris Smalling and Phil are taking veteran Ferdinand's lead and playing the ball, dribbling and making runs through the middle. With this new generation, it looks like England's legacy might finally change.