England travel to Switzerland in their first qualifier of the Euro 2016 campaign on Monday, in probably their hardest fixture on paper.

England have been blessed with one of the easiest qualifying groups they’ve ever had this year, so failure is not an option for the Three Lions. Besides the Swiss, a group containing Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and San Marino shouldn’t cause too many sleepless nights for Roy Hodgson as his side begin yet another long journey in search of their first silverware since 1966.

Switzerland pose the only real threat to England’s top spot, coming off the back of an impressive World Cup campaign where they took eventual runners-up Argentina to extra-time and only an Angel Di Maria goal in the 116th-minute could spare the South American’s blushes.

Vladimir Petkovic’s side had a rocky campaign, full of ups and downs, including Xherdan Shaqiri’s wonderful hat-trick against Honduras and their last-minute win against Ecuador, but their 5-2 defeat at the hands of France left a bit of a bitter taste in Swiss mouths.

England’s World Cup was certainly not as exciting as that, as Roy’s boys managed to score two goals in total, their only point in the group salvaged in a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica. Luis Suarez came back to haunt the English defence, while Mario Balotelli scored the winner for Italy against the Three Lions to send them packing, heads in hands.

Hopefully, though, all of that will be forgotten when England walk out onto the Stade de Suisse. Switzerland have some fantastic young players, like the aforementioned Bayern winger, Xherdan Shaqiri, along with Granit Xhaka, the scorer of a great costless-kick in the defeat to France at the World Cup. Add that to the experience of Gokhan Inler, Valon Behrami and Stephan Lichtsteiner and Petkovic has a great deal of talent at his expense and a team that can only get better.

England seem to have a real gem on their hands in the form of young Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, while Ross Barkley and Jack Wilshere, to name a few, are all promising, youthful players. If properly nurtured, England could turn into a team of blistering pace, with a lot of good wingers and midfielders all around the same age, for example Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana, who add to the side in their own ways.

Roy Hodgson’s men could quietly build a team capable of taking apart any defence with their skill, agility and devastating speed, but as Hodgson seems to prefer slow, patient play, it raises the question if he’s the right man for the job. With all this young, hungry players at his expense, all hungry to run at defenders and the retirements of veteran midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, it seems that slow play is not the right way to go about setting the team up at all.

England have been subject to a lot of criticism over the years, but, although we say it every year, with the youth talent they posess at the moment, could that be about to change?