England: Existing links give Lee Carsley a major advantage in job audition [Video]

One of the difficulties of international football, particularly compared to the club game, is how little time managers have to work with their players.

Building coherent, tactically-advanced national teams is challenging when coaches have only a handful of camps a year between major tournaments, and often have to cram two matches into little over a week, including rest and recovery days.

As a result, top national sides are typically less coherent and advanced than the best club teams, with managers occasionally struggling to get the best from their star players – arguably evidenced succinctly by Gareth Southgate’s England, who often felt less than the sum of their parts, in spite of their notable successes.

The big question for Southgate’s current successor, interim head coach Lee Carsley, is whether he can build a more coherent and exciting version of England, and the former Everton midfielder will be hoping his familiarity with the …