England manager Roy Hodgson has advised Ross Barkley to study footage of Roberto Baggio and Francesco Totti if he intends to become the goalscoring midfielder the national team lacks.
In the first half of last year, Hodgson was reluctant to speak at length about Barkley, and went out of his way to play down the hype surrounding the midfielder in the build-up to the tournament.
At one point during England's pre-World Cup training camp in Miami, Hodgson even refused to answer questions about the then 20-year-old following an impressive showing from the Everton man on his first start against Ecuador.
"I am not prepared to address your obsession with Ross Barkley," Hodgson said, before adding: "He lost the ball an awful lot of times."
Nowadays, Hodgson is more relaxed when talking about the Everton midfielder.
After two seasons spent in and out of the starting XI, the England international finally seems to have nailed down a place in the Everton team.
He has started every Premier League game for the club this season and has only been substituted once -- in the final minute of the 0-0 draw at Swansea.
The 15-cap midfielder has found the net three times for Everton and scored his maiden England goal in the 6-0 win over San Marino last month.
With Hodgson set to experiment in at least one of the upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers against Estonia and Lithuania this month, Barkley has a real chance of forcing his way into the England team for the tournament in France if he maintains his recent form.
"He has been pushing for a while now," the England manager said. "His chances of getting in the first team do increase when he is playing well for Everton and they are winning.
"That hasn't always been the case during the times I have picked him, but I know [Everton manager] Roberto Martinez is pleased with him, we are pleased with him.
"There is competition but we think he is good enough to play for England and he will get his chances."
Hodgson usually likes to play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, so it seems there are two ways Barkley can fit in the side, either as a deeper-lying midfielder in the former formation or at the tip of the midfield diamond if the England manager opts for the latter system.
There is plenty of competition for the deeper positions. Jordan Henderson, Jack Wilshere and Fabian Delph are expected to return after Christmas while James Milner and Michael Carrick are among Hodgson's favourite players.
The more likely option is slotting Barkley just behind a strike force of Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane in a diamond.
Whichever route Barkley takes, Hodgson has made it clear he wants more goals from the Merseysider and his midfield colleagues.
Central midfielders have chipped in with just three of the 28 goals scored by England since the World Cup. In fact, 12 of the 85 goals scored under Hodgson have come from players in that position, and eight of those were by either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, who have now retired.
"We are always looking for midfielders who can score goals," Hodgson said. "We haven't been blessed with that over the last few years."
Studying the likes of Baggio, who played under Hodgson at Inter, and his compatriot Francesco Totti, who has scored 243 goals in 587 appearances for Roma, will help Barkley immensely, according to Hodgson.
"If you want to be the guy who plays behind the forward you have to score goals," Hodgson said.
"If I was a player in that position, maybe the classic players I would be looking at would be Roberto Baggio and Francesco Totti. I would be looking at them. That would be my template.
"They scored an awful lot of goals. We think that is something Ross can help us with too."