Dubai: England great Gary Lineker is counting on the young guns to deliver for England in the not too distant future, including Euro 2016.

England has been far from convincing as a major force in football in recent times, with the first round exit in the Brazil World Cup. Now with fresh young faces showing up, the former England star feels it will be one of the teams to look out for in the near future.

“I think we have gone through a little bit of the doldrums and a bit of a dark period at the moment. But I also think we have just about emerged from it as we have a lot of good young players coming through the ranks. Finally, we have changed the way we develop young talent and the focus now is more on keeping the ball and tactical awareness and skills rather than the typical English way of playing football,” Lineker told Gulf News during his visit here as a guest of British Airways.

“There are a few young players and perhaps, it may be a little bit early for some of them as they are 19 and 20 years old. But they can be among the best in the future for sure,” he predicted.

Last week, Wayne Rooney scored twice in England’s 3-1 win over Scotland in a friendly and is now within two goals of Lineker’s record of 48 goals for his country. Lineker, however, has been among the greats after scoring 10 goals to hold England’s record for goals in Fifa World Cup finals — including six goals at the 1986 Finals that fetched him the ‘golden boot’.

If the 1966 Fifa World Cup was a high for England, the only other occasion they have come closest was with a fourth place in 1990 with Linekar playing his part with the ‘golden generation’ such as Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Bryan Robson, John Barnes, Paul Gascoigne and Stuart Pearce.

However, the future looks promising for England with youngsters such as Calum Chambers, Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley, Luke Shaw, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain giving coach Roy Hodgson a pleasant headache. “Most of these players are in the 19s and 20s and there are enough numbers that suggest that we might be heading into a period where we can be a little bit more optimistic about English football,” Lineker observed.

The presence of younger faces in the team is already paying dividends as England has started off qualifying campaign for the 2016 Euro Championship on a good note. “May be Euro 2016 would possibly be a bit too early for this team, but I would think we can be competitive and better at the tournament. The important thing is that there is a choice before the coach and the numbers are there for him to make his choice. Hopefully, we should get at least half of them as world class players, which is really what is needed so that England can compete even thoughone really doesn’t know how many of these can go and last at the international level,” he said.

“I think we have always been behind a bit technically and tactically and that’s why we have not had consistent success as a country of the footballing stature that England is and should have enjoyed. We have been tactically naive with the way we have developed our players. We are perhaps 20 years behind, but the good thing is we are catching up fast,” Lineker added.