Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips have proved such an effective screen for England in Euro 2020 that even former captain Tony Adams wished he had played with the pair.
Rice and Leeds United star Phillips have started every match for the Three Lions this tournament, helping Gareth Southgate's team to four consecutive clean sheets.
The duo have received plaudits far and wide for their performances with Adams the latest to add his voice to the praise.
Adams captained England to the semi-finals of Euro '96, a tournament that ended in penalty heartache against Germany, and had a central midfield made up of Paul Ince, David Platt and Paul Gascoigne in front of him.
Even with this quality ahead of him, Adams was jealous of the protection Rice and Phillips offered John Stones, Harry Maguire, and Kyle Walker on Tuesday evening.
"Congratulations to Kalvin and Declan who put up a fantastic wall of defence and enabled us to keep another clean sheet. Wish I had that screen in 96," Adams wrote on Twitter.
Prior to the Germany clash, Rice and Phillips had received some criticism for the supposed negative style of play they bring to the side and Rice has revealed this was used as motivation to prove a match for some of the best in the game.
"Being honest, you read stuff where people write you off and obviously say stuff that you're not good enough," Rice said.
"You're coming up against people like [Toni] Kroos, [Leon] Goretzka and [Ilkay] Gundogan - they're saying that me and Kalv [Phillips] won't be able to compete against them.
"You kind of just put that to the back of your mind but always remember it, so that when you go out there you know if you win a game, you can just kind of shut people up with your noise.
"That's what we've done. We went out there, I said to Kalv before the game, we both said to each other, let's just go out there and have it.
"That's what we've done and to be honest, we wanted to fight for every ball. It was crucial in there because it was a two versus two in midfield, so we had to fight for every ball, every tackle and every header.
"We had to fight for every ball like it was our last and I said in the interview after the game that we weren't coming off that pitch until we won. That was the mentality of everyone."
Both Rice and Phillips picked up first-half yellow cards against Germany, meaning another against Ukraine will mean a suspension should England make it to the semi-final stage.
The loss of either man would be a blow to Southgate who has settled on the pair as his first choice selection. However, with a Champions League-winning captain in Jordan Henderson in reserve England are well stocked if the worst should happen.
