Friendly internationals are often dismissed as pointless exercises and this week Gareth Southgate could have been accused of buying into that particular idea.
Picking lots of young centre-halves only to play Kyle Walker alongside two other right-backs in a back three was one possible angle of attack.
Considering Eric Dier for a quarter-back role only to leave him out of this game altogether would be another. Never mind testing players for asthma as part of what Southgate claimed was a wide-ranging health check when one imagines their club doctors have already identified any symptoms.
But if it was difficult to see what possible use this encounter could be for an England manager entering the final phase of his preparation for the World Cup, there was some purpose at least to deploying this particular forward line-up.