Mick McCarthy believes Roy Hodgson got his selection policy right, despite England’s failings at the World Cup in Brazil.

England departed South America after being knocked out of the tournament at the group stages, losing to Uruguay and Italy and drawing with Costa Rica.

Hodgson built his team around the likes of veteran skipper Steven Gerrard and an experienced Premier League back-five, but did give starlets such as Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley the chance to shine, while new Manchester United signing Luke Shaw played in the dead rubber game against Costa Rica.

England will now be looking towards Euro 2016 qualification and that trio are likely to play a pivotal part going forward, while the likes of Gerrard and Frank Lampard may only be used sparingly, if they choose not to retire.

“Roy got it right taking some young fellas as you have to change it (squad) at some point,” said McCarthy.

“I did it as manager of Republic of Ireland and brought in Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, Kevin Kilbane and Ian Harte.

“It took us two campaigns to qualify but we reached the last-16 in Japan and South Korea and that was because we had a team of kids that gradually blossomed, got experience and when they did qualify, did themselves justice. Perhaps we should have qualified (for Euro 2000) two years earlier.

“Unless he (Hodgson) gets players through, they will never get any better.”