England boss Roy Hodgson is confident his young, attack-minded squad will have the balance required for Euro 2016 and hopes Marcus Rashford will show his "special qualities" in France.
England's final 23-man squad features five attackers, eight midfielders, seven defenders and three goalkeepers after Hodgson opted to cut Danny Drinkwater, Andros Townsend and Fabian Delph from the provisional squad.
There had only been three specialist centre-backs in the initial selection, along with the versatile defensive midfielder Eric Dier, and concerns have been raised that there is little defensive cover in the case of injuries or suspensions.
Hodgson told a news conference ahead of Thursday's friendly with Portugal that he was satisfied that the "balance is good," even if he acknowledges he has had to make sacrifices in terms of providing cover.
"It does tilt towards youth and attackers," he said. "We think we have a lot of players in that area who are really good enough and I wouldn't have been happy leaving them behind to bring in players to shore up areas in case of this, that or the other.
"I'm perfectly satisfied that the 23 chosen has been chosen after careful thought and careful deliberation."
The midfielders Hodgson did select in the final squad include Dele Alli, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling, who are all attack-minded, but he said: "We believe defending is a team job. It goes right from the front."
He said he had made the decision to leave out Leicester midfielder Drinkwater, who won his third cap against Australia, because others were more established in the squad and added: "Danny was a tough one to leave out.
"He's had a very, very good season. It simply became a question of 'Do I take the extra attacker or the extra midfield player?'"
He added: "It was a very difficult decision. For a long period of time, if anything, we haven't had an enormous amount of choice and sometimes there have been comments that we don't have enough players to pick from.
"Suddenly we do have a lot of players to pick from and it was a very tough decision for me.
"I was very happy with the 26, I was delighted with the way the three guys who didn't get selected for the final 23 worked and yesterday was a difficult day for me having to tell them they weren't going to be in the final 23.
"But I must say the players were fantastic, they were unbelievably understanding of the need that I had to make a decision. They ended by wishing everybody well and that they had enjoyed the preparation time. They made the job as easy for me as it could possibly be."
�� #ThreeLions manager Roy Hodgson discusses his decision to name @MarcusRashford in his final squad for #EURO2016. https://t.co/G9MJWk4puw
- England (@England) June 1, 2016
Hodgson said either Drinkwater or Townsend would have travelled if Rashford had not but felt it was worth gambling the Manchester United youngster.
Rashford, who only made his first appearance for United in February, scored on his England debut in the 2-1 victory over Australia on Friday.
Hodgson said he had not opted to select the 18-year-old on the basis of that performance.
"No," he said. "The deliberations have involved all of the 25 players who were with us after Fabian got injured. We were discussing 25 continually."
He added: "Rashford's had that fantastic end to the season and is a very, very interesting player. He has some special qualities, I think that's been recognised by everybody, and it'll be very interesting to see in a squad of 23 whether he can bring those qualities to bear at an even higher level."
There is still some uncertainty over the lineup and formation that Hodgson intends to use in their Euro 2016 opener against Russia on June 11 but, asked whether he would be experimenting against Portugal, he said: "I don't need to try anything out anymore."
He said the team that plays at Wembley may not be the one that starts in France.
"The XI tomorrow may not be the XI that starts against Russia," he said. "We are capable of playing against Russia with two XIs. I'm hoping we'll go past the first three games and to do that I'll need more than XI players."
On whether he was close to knowing his preferred starting lineup, he said: "I've been close for a long time because these players I've worked with for a long period of time.
"If you take out Marcus Rashford, who really is a new boy on the block, there's nobody I don't know well."
Hodgson also revealed that, with the exception of Harry Kane, he would be open to using any of the forwards in his squad in a wide position.
He said: "I'm comfortable that, whatever way we want to play, we'll be covered. Systems win you nothing. Football players win you games."
Southampton left-back Ryan Bertrand has been absent from training in recent days but Hodgson said: "It's not a concern.
"I'm afraid when you play two preparation games you run the risk of picking up a slight injury or knock, but it's not a serious injury and we're pretty confident he will be fit for when we play Russia.
"It's an injury that will obviously keep him out of tomorrow's game, but it's not a long-term concern at all."
Information from the Press Association was used in this report.