How different this World Cup could be for England if Sam Allardyce had never been hit by the newspaper sting that saw him lose his job. Well his tactical advice gives us some insight into what things would have been like.
Two years ago life for the England team was very different. A loss against Iceland was the most embarrassing of all their many embarrassments over the years as they crashed out of the Euros.
That result led to Roy Hodgson leaving as England manager, not that he could work out what he'd done wrong as he refused to do a post leaving press conference until forced by the FA.
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Enter Sam Allardyce. The former Crystal Palace boss only had the job for one game though as he became embroiled in a tabloid scandal over remarks he made about third party ownership of players.
The decision to get rid of Big Sam was controversial at the time but it seems to have paid off with England in the quarter finals of the World Cup against Sweden.
Allardyce though has given his heir Gareth Southgate some odd tactical advice when asked how England could score more from open play. Talking on talkSPORT he said:
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"System change would be my thought. Perhaps we could've changed from a back three to a back two.
"We could go with a back two against Sweden because I don't think they've got anything to concern us going forward, having watched them against Switzerland.
"England don't need to play with three at the back. They could play comfortably with two defenders and put the extra man in midfield.
"For me, it would have to be Trippier or Kyle Walker [who got left out]. If you left Trippier out, you put Walker at right-back and if you left Walker out you'd leave Trippier at right-back."
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It's all a bit Mike Bassett:
Sure England have so far been far from perfect but Southgate decided a long time ago that he would be playing a system with three at the back and he's picked players to fit into that system, unlike previous administrations.
So far it has worked and the Three Lions find themselves in the quarter finals on merit and it would be mad to change to an unfamiliar system for the national team's biggest game since 2006.
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You can't help but think this would be a very different side with Allardyce as manager and England are better for it.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Sam Allardyce, World Cup news, England, Gareth Southgate, World Cup, Sweden