No quick-fix for

ROY Hodgson has admitted his team will not be the finished article by the time they travel to the European Championship finals, but he will urge his players to use the overnight warmup game against Belgium to prove to the country they will shed every last drop of sweat to be successful in Poland and Ukraine.

The England manager, 64, officially appointed on May 1 but West Bromwich Albion manager until May 13, will have conducted only five full training sessions with his squad before they fly to Cracow on Thursday with a maximum of a further four before their opening match in the competition, against France on June 12 in Donetsk.

Although Hodgson acknowledged he has not had sufficient time to cast the team in his image, he is adamant there will be no shortage of effort once the tournament gets under way, something he hopes to see proved on his Wembley debut.

‘‘As a football coach who has worked year after year, done session after session, I find it very hard to understand how anyone can remotely imagine that, in two weeks and five training sessions, you could get a team playing the way you would like them to play,’’ he said.

‘‘If you ask me if I am happy that the players have responded well, and that the players have an idea of what we are looking for, then I am happy. I think they will be OK. But you do not model a team in two weeks. It’s not a possibility.

‘‘What do I want from it [the Belgium game]? I want the players to go and show how enthusiastic they are about this tournament, how determined they are to work their socks off to get the best results possible, that their attitude towards this tournament is going to be that no fair-minded person will be able to say they didn’t give their best, they didn’t work hard enough or want it badly enough.

‘‘If they can give a performance that in some way shows that, it will make me happy.’’

Despite a career spanning five decades, Hodgson’s experiences of Wembley are limited to attending games as a spectator – starting with the 1975 FA Cup Final – and one brief run-out, in 1996, for a Uefa Select XI in a close-fought defeat by a Football Association side. ‘‘Managing at Wembley is fantastic,’’ he said. ‘‘Ninety thousand people, on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It will be a very big occasion for me personally.’’

The former Liverpool and Fulham manager will name what is widely expected to be his firstchoice back five against France for his bow at the national stadium, with Joe Hart in goal shielded by Glen Johnson and the Chelsea trio of John Terry, Gary Cahill and Ashley Cole.

Steven Gerrard will be partnered in midfield by Scott Parker, despite concerns over the Tottenham Hotspur player’s Achilles problem, which cost him the last month of the season.

‘‘Scott has worked hard in training and he will get fitter by the day,’’ Hodgson said. ‘‘He will start [against Belgium] and that will be an important part of him getting more match fitness. I ask him every day how he is, and he says he’s perfectly OK. He will get fed up with me asking.’’

The England manager’s concerns, given that he has already lost Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry to injury, are understandable.

‘‘It’s very unfortunate, but we are not alone,’’ Hodgson said. ‘‘France are a classic example, [possibly] losing Yann M’Vila