Sheffield pairing could be central for Hodgson

The Sheffield connection of former United player Phil Jagielka and Dronfield-born Gary Cahill has the potential to endure for the Three Lions.

Hodgson has used no fewer than five different centre-half pairings in the last seven matches, with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Steven Caulker earning caps in the 2012-13 season.

But he stuck with Cahill and Jagielka for the entire duration of last week’s games against Brazil and the Republic of Ireland – a hint, perhaps, that the England boss sees the duo as the answer to a problem that has existed since the beginning of the end of the Rio Ferdinand-John Terry axis.

England conceded three goals during those two games and given that they had only started together on five occasions before last night’s 2-2 draw in the Maracana, Jagielka was happy with how he and Cahill performed.

“Getting to play two lots of 90 minutes definitely helped,” the 30-year-old Everton captain and Blades academy product said.

“I came here to play as many minutes as I could and thankfully I got two games and so did Gaz.

“It’s always nice to try and strike up a partnership. We have not played that many games together.

“The two tests we have had have been completely different, but they have been two great tests and hopefully we will go back now, start next season well and hopefully put up a good shout for next season.”

It has not all been plain sailing for the Steel City duo. Jagielka failed to track Shane Long, leading to Ireland’s only goal at Wembley last Wednesday.

Neither player was quick enough to stop Fred athletically putting Brazil ahead on Sunday after Hernanes had struck the bar, before Cahill’s lax marking allowed Paulinho to level the game at 2-2 in the 82nd minute.

But given that they had the likes of Oscar, Neymar, Hulk and Fred charging at them, Chelsea defender Cahill thinks he and Jagielka fronted up well.

“I think we did well,” said the 27-year-old. “We got asked a lot of questions that we knew that we were going to be asked.

“I thought generally in the game we stood up well, and so did the team.”