Continuety is key for England's development

Townsend made a huge impact in his first two England appearances.

By playing a more settled side England are giving themselves a bigger chance of success in developing new talent.

A lesson should have been learned from Andros Townsend. If you want to experiment with a player then slot him into your first XI. Do not change everyone at once. A player slotted into the normal team will be well supported and can feed off the rhythm developed by the experience and understanding of the senior players. They will be confident in what the team are doing and can express themselves, maybe take a few risks, which is the only way to make an impact. Even if the game is of huge importance and pressure, within a stable team the debutant can rise to the challenge, much like Andros Townsend did against Montenegro in England's must win match where he scored and set up a goal.

The other approach is to make whole sale changes. Experiment by putting as many new players on the pitch as possible then pray. This is as likely to succeed as an alchemist is to make gold out of random chemicals. Roy Hodgson took this approach against Chile on Friday night when he gave two players, Rodriguez and Llana, their debuts. This would be fine apart from the rest of the established team had vanished around them. Only Cahill, Baines and Rooney remained from the last match England played, that many changes was always going to make the game a difficult one to win and almost impossible to actually play well. The team, not really ever having played together, played like a bunch of lads who had never played with each other. Weird that. What hope did the debuting players have of making an impact without the confidence and rhythm of a settled team supporting them?

This can be seen in all teams sports. Place a rookie into an experienced set up and, if they've got it, they will make it. Change the whole team and you're setting them up to fail. A particular example is seen in tracking the progression of the England and the All Blacks sides in Rugby Union. When Stuart Lancaster took over he had to make big changes to the squad and it took time to settle. Now, with experience and confidence building, new players are slotted in and given debuts in a consistent, confident team. This is building a bigger supply of experienced players who can perform well for England. It takes time but the success is evident. Compare how England were blown away by Wales in 2013's Six Nations to how they fought back after a dreadful opening few minutes against the All Blacks on Saturday. In that match the relatively inexperienced players like Billy Vunipola (5 caps), and Lee Dixon (11 caps), played very well. They are playing amongst a settled team and this gave them the confidence to push hard and excel in a high pressure test match

The All Blacks themselves seem to have never had to rebuild. That is because they never make whole sale changes to their team unless playing the minnows of the game. They are the masters of the Andros Townsend approach. They consistently blood new talent within the main squad by playing a couple of inexperienced players alongside the battle hardened veterans. Youth is given a chance to shine and express itself and is confident enough to do so. 

Even the famous double winning Manchester United team of 1995/96 that threw Beckham, Butt, Scholes and the Neville brothers into the side had vast experience in Bruce, Pallister, Cantona and Keane to support them, give them confidence and allow them to express themselves.

If England want to blood new players, which they should do as often as possible to build a strong squad, they need to do it correctly. There is no point throwing an inexperienced team together as it will not work. Take the Townsend approach, put a new player into the established first team if you want them to succeed. In tonight's match against Germany it looks like Hodgson is doing just that with Llana getting his second cap. I think the rest of the team has enough experience to support the newer players for them to succeed. Cole, Gerrard, Rooney have bags of experience while the likes of Jagielka, Walker, and Smalling have been a frequent part of the team. As a whole England will put out a fairly settled side. A weak spot maybe the Cleverly, Gerrard pairing but they have still played more this season than Lampard and Wilshere.

Germany, on the other hand, have made quite a few changes and its no surprise with Borussia Dortmund at home to Bayern Munich on Saturday (I'm sure Low gets as much pressure to rest players as Hodgson does).  Not many Bayern players are expected to start the match while its doubtful the Dortmund players will last ninety minutes. Germany's incoming players still have more caps than England's new boys but England's hope will be that this slightly unsettled German side will lack its normal metronomic tempo and power. If Germany play with disrupted rhythm, maybe it will be England's slightly more settled team that can pull of an upset. One which I think they will.