There was an almost sadistic pride taken in England’s sudden set-piece dominance during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, some strange, probably jingoistic twinge that this was how it always ought to be.
It was old-school stuff, our lads hardened by the physicality of the English game; too big, too brave to be stopped. Indeed, to watch Harry Maguire attack deliveries at that tournament was to wonder how anyone in the Premier League had ever managed it.
