England coach Thomas Tuchel ended his press conference on Friday by saying he prefers to stay offline and not worry about the opinions of millions of armchair managers, and judging by reaction to his first squad announcement it is a wise strategy.
There were several surprises among the 26 names the 51-year-old German selected for England's opening World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia.
None more so than a recall for former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, the 34-year-old currently struggling to earn a starting place for Ajax Amsterdam who he joined in a bid to salvage his international career following a brief and much-criticised spell in the Saudi Pro League.
By the time Tuchel sat down in the bowels of Wembley to address the assembled press, England's fans and pundits had swarmed social media to offer their thoughts and the majority of them were not especially flattering.
"Bizarre", "regressive" and "baffling" were some of the words used to describe Henderson's return while 88% of responders to a poll on the BBC Sport website disagreed with the decision.
While Tuchel's squad offered a first call for Arsenal's exciting 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly and Newcastle United's experienced defender Dan Burn, the fact that he opted against a shake-up showed his focus is very much on the next 18 months rather than England's longer term evolution.
Former Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach Tuchel, named as Gareth Southgate's successor in October for one of soccer's most scrutinised roles, was prepared for a grilling.
"I would be surprised if there was not a surprise in the debate," he told reporters. "It comes with this job. I guess you would have loved to be in our meetings room in the last days. We had emotional debates, intense debates.
"Some very hard decisions, some are more obvious, some are maybe a little bit more hidden. Some very close decisions, and there are some players not in the squad who absolutely did enough and deserved to be in."
Ordinarily, a recall for 60-cap striker Marcus Rashford, on loan at Aston Villa after being frozen out at Manchester United, or even the continued loyalty to defender Kyle Walker, might have been key talking points.
But Henderson's inclusion at the expense of the likes of Crystal Palace youngster Adam Wharton or Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, especially with Manchester United's Kobbie Mainoo injured, was the talk of the gathered media.
Asked to explain, Tuchel said there was no reason why Henderson could not be part of the squad for the World Cup finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico next year.
"It's a pretty easy one. Jordan is, first of all, a serial winner. He's captain of Ajax," he told reporters.
"What he brings to every team is leadership, his character, personality, energy. Makes sure that everyone lives by the standards. And Jordan brings everything. He embodies everything that we want from this team."
Traditional strengths
Tuchel, who took charge in January and has attended 25 matches to cast his eye over his options, stressed that he has limited time before the World Cup and that he believed England's best hope taking the 'final step' and delivering a first trophy since 1966 after Southgate's near misses was to play to their traditional strengths.
"The Premier League is a very physical league. It's a very direct league. I think we should be brave enough to play like an England squad. We should not try to copy other nations, other styles too much. I think my team should reflect the values of the country and of the strongest league in the world.
"So we will try to implement a direct style and an attacking style, increase the intensity in our game, and try to do it of course, in a crash course Monday."
It has been a long wait for Tuchel to get to 'hug the players' and 'smell the grass' and he said he cannot wait to get started on Monday. But he warned not to expect a radical departure from what England produced under Southgate.
"We will not re-invent football new in the four days that we have before the first match," he said.
