Hodgson has two years to rebuild for Brazil
WITH his tie pulled down and his top button undone, Roy Hodgson looked like a man who had endured a rough night.
But in his final press conference before returning home with an England side chastened by their European Championship defeat by Italy, Hodgson at least acknowledged that a period of radical change now had to follow.
He spoke of a “revolution”, of a younger, more attacking England come the friendlier meeting they will have with Andrea Pirlo and his colleagues in Switzerland in August.
Hodgson did not dwell too long on the specifics, and he was in no mood to declare an end to the international careers of his older players. He quite rightly acknowledged that some of the more senior members of his squad, in particular Steven Gerrard and John Terry, had been among England’s finest performers. Terry’s lack of pace does force England to defend deep and on the international stage that can create its own problems. But he deserves credit for the way he played at Euro 2012, not least against Italy.
Clearly, however, Hodgson has a vision that includes players such as Jack Wilshere and Kyle Walker, Gary Cahill and Chris Smalling. Not to mention more attacking flair in the form of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, who would have taken England’s fifth penalty in Kiev had the quarter-final not already been settled by cooler, more clinical opponents.
“With regards to the August 15 friendly, I think you will definitely see some revolution there because that game is the ideal opportunity for me to look at some players who weren’t with us here,” said the England manager.
“I need to see if they can add to the quality of our team. After that, of course, we go on to the September qualifiers and we have to mix the two together. But the question then is whether we can improve the quality within our team.”
After taking the next few weeks off, Hodgson will head to Brazil for what the Football Association likes to call a factfinding mission.
They will look at possible training bases for the 2014 World Cup, and look to finalise plans for two friendlies in Brazil in the first week of next June, against the hosts and Uruguay. It will introduce England’s players to the South American environment a year ahead of the tournament.
But such preparation is only part of the picture, and after what happened in Kiev on Sunday night the less important of the two main challenges the FA faces before the next major tournament.
Hodgson has to qualify first, of course. But by the summer of 2014 he also has to deliver a team more capable of dealing with the strongest nations in the competition. That is Hodgson’s task moving on from Euro 2012; the task by which he will ultimately be measured as an England manager.
The contest with Italy exposed some all too familiar deficiencies in the England side. Not least an alarming inability to retain possession and pass the ball in a manner the Italians made look easy. We did not need the pages of statistics Uefa produced afterwards to tell us that, even if the fact that Joe Hart completed more passes than any teammate told its own story.
It was there for everyone to see, and on Monday a deeply disappointed Gerrard – so impressive as a captain at this tournament – was the first to recognise it remains a “fundamental” problem.
“I’m sure it’s one of the biggest points of this tournament that the management and the coaching staff will have to look into,” he said.
“They will have to analyse why we aren’t keeping the ball better, especially at this level, because it’s fundamental; it’s key if you want to beat the big teams in these tournaments.”
Hodgson should take some positives from this tournament. Surviving until the 28th of 31 games, as one FA official highlighted on Monday, might be stretching it a bit. But they did top a group that included France and emerged unbeaten in 90 minutes. That said, New Zealand managed to do that in the last World Cup.
But for all the success Hodgson has had in the short time he has been in charge – in organising the team as well as he did and creating unity among the players – the lack of possession was alarming.
Over the four games they averaged just 39 percent; England’s worst figures in a tournament since 1980 and better only than Greece and Ireland this month.
While Hodgson was more reluctant to acknowledge the statistics, he too expressed some frustration.
“Against Italy we gave the ball away far too often in areas where we didn’t expect to,” he said. – Daily Mail