WEMBLEY FUEL FOR TOWNSEND
Under Poch the great flakes are now simply great
MAURICIO POCHETTINO insists Tottenham aren’t ‘Spursy’ any more as they aim to follow up their Champions League heroics tomorrow against Crystal Palace.
ROY HODGSON has called on Andros Townsend to reproduce the form from his favourite Wembley victory on his return to the National Stadium tomorrow.
The Crystal Palace boss lost only three matches in Wembley in his four years as England qualified for two tournaments. And Hodgson’s “best memory” was beating Poland in October 2013 to book a ticket to the World Cup in Brazil.
Former Spurs star Townsend was superb that night but has yet to score in 12 games this season for the Premier League’s bottom club.
And Hodgson said: “I am looking forward to going back – Wembley only has happy memories.
“If I had to pick one game, it would be Poland and if you ask Andros, I am sure he would mention the same game.
“Going back to Wembley will be a great stage for Andros or Wilf Zaha to put on a similar performance.
“Certainly Wembley and a rampant Tottenham team that everyone is regarding as one of the very best teams in the country, that is the sort of game you should be going to bed on a Saturday night really looking forward to.”
Hodgson picked five Tottenham players – Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, Dele Ali and Harry Kane – for his last Wembley game against Portugal in June last year. And he defended using the Premier League’s top striker as the corner-taker at Euro 2016.
“Harry didn’t score goals from corners – he had only scored one I think all season at that time,” Hodgson claimed.
“We thought we would get the best deliverer of the ball delivering, because we thought we Roy Hodgson lost just three times at the national stadium during his four-year spell in charge of the Thre Lions. Two of those defeats were in t same week as Chile and Germany pipped them in friendlies in Novemb 2013. The other loss came in March 2 when Holland won 2-1 in another friendly. P22 W17 D2 L3 GF48 GA12 GD+36
had a few other players who were good at attacking the ball in the penalty area.
“Had we had someone else on corners, and Harry in the middle, it wouldn’t have made one bit of difference to our results.”
Hodgson also revealed he spotted Harry Winks’ potential when England were using the Tottenham training ground.
“We were one short – we needed a midfield player – and they sent Harry over,” he recalled.
“He was very impressive in the training session. If you’d have been watching, I don’t think you’d have picked him out as the kid who’s just been called up. He took to it straight away.”