Just as most people believe they are above-average drivers, so most football fans are irrationally optimistic about their team’s chances at the start of an international tournament.

Unless, that is, they are English. An Ipsos MRBI poll published during the week suggests that it's time to abandon the stereotype of the delusionally confident England fan. The English now view their national team with icy detachment, rating their ability scarcely any higher than foreigners do.

The international survey of fans revealed that 2 per cent of them believed England would win the World Cup. The survey of English fans revealed that only 3 per cent of them could admit to believing the same.

That compares to 4 per cent of Australian fans who believed their country would win the World Cup, 4 per cent of Japanese, 7 per cent of Americans, 51 per cent of Spanish, 57 per cent of Argentinians and 68 per cent of Brazilians.

The numbers say that we have almost reached the point at which English fans have actually begun to underrate their team. The English nation faces into the World Cup with a masochistic glint in its eye, challenging fate to come on and get it over with.

With no injuries, scandals or crises to occupy the media, the conversation surrounding England has revolved around the question of how many of the younger attacking players Roy Hodgson should pick against Italy tonight.

Most exciting

Perhaps the most exciting solution was proposed by

Paul Scholes

who says he is fed up of watching England play cautious, negative football and losing in the quarter-finals.

Scholes' idea was a front six of Wayne Rooney up front, Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling on the wings, Danny Welbeck behind the striker with a brief to man-mark Italy's playmaker, with Ross Barkley driving forward in support and Steven Gerrard holding it all together at the back of midfield.

Scholes’ audacious blueprint is reminiscent of the Diego Maradona masterplan – essentially five forwards plus Javier Mascherano – that allowed Germany to crush Argentina 4-0 at the last World Cup.

Luckily for Gerrard, his manager is unlikely to heed Scholes’ advice this time.

Still, the man most people believe was the best English midfielder since Paul Gascoigne has given Hodgson plenty to think about with an intriguing commentary on the England team in recent weeks.

Some of the most piquant analysis was reserved for Wayne Rooney, who, Scholes hinted, might already be past his best aged just 28.

Last week Rooney described that criticism as “strange,” and pointed out that it would have upset the people at Manchester United who had recently awarded Rooney a five year, £75 million contract. Indeed.

Constant irritation

The muttering about his form has been a constant irritation for Rooney since he joined up with the camp three weeks ago.

Neither will Rooney’s mood have been improved by the reports on Thursday that he had contrasted himself favourably with Cristiano Ronaldo by suggesting the Portuguese was motivated by a shallow, selfish strain of personal ambition.

Ronaldo clearly is greedy for personal glory but as he chases it he drags his teams to success. Real Madrid are European champions thanks to his 17 goals in 11 Champions League games. Portugal are in the World Cup thanks to his devastating hat-trick in Stockholm. None of his colleagues in either team begrudge him his tuxedo moments.

Rooney says winning with the team is his priority, but maybe his team-mates wouldn’t mind if he was to demonstrate a little more of Ronaldo’s burning ambition to be the best, and to be acclaimed as such.

Another tournament failure puts Rooney at risk of losing the respect of the majority of England fans. His task in this World Cup is to prove that he is still world-class at something other than securing pay-rises.

If he is turned on by a challenge, they won't come much tougher than Italy in the thick heat and humidity of Manaus. Scholes' proposed team had Rooney up front, which is his favourite position.

The idea was that he could conserve energy and concentrate on scoring goals.

Best players

But Daniel Sturridge has emerged as Hodgson’s favoured option at centre-forward, and it seems most likely that Rooney will start behind him in the number 10 role. That means he’ll be up against the best players in the Italian side.

Italy are expected to line out with a fluid midfield trio of Andrea Pirlo, Marco Verratti and Daniele de Rossi. De Rossi is the enforcer, while Pirlo remains a quality playmaker.

Scholes’ advice was to man-mark Pirlo. The picture is complicated, however, by the likely presence on the field of the PSG midfielder Verratti. He is always there setting the tempo, initiating the attacks. His passing, long and short, is superb. Give him space and he will make you suffer.

But man-mark Verratti and you leave Pirlo free, so you haven’t solved anything. Italy are a difficult puzzle for England to solve. A cagey 0-0 played out at walking pace would arguably be the least appealing of results for the English public, satisfying neither their suppressed lust for glory, nor their tragi-comic masochism.

Hodgson, however, would be the happiest man in the jungle.