Roy’s just making it up as he goes along
ONE by one, England’s players traipsed from the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard trotting out what seemed to be the same, carefully rehearsed line that everything was not as bleak as it suddenly felt.
The chance to finish top of Group B had been squandered but, to paraphrase, while the goalless draw against Slovakia was frustrating, the performance had been good.
Yet the PR spin merely accentuated the stark contrast with Roy Hodgson. He is a manager clearly making it up as he goes along.
From the sweeping changes in personnel, to switches in formation and back again, there appears little joined-up thinking shaping England’s hopes at Euro 2016.
There has not been for some time, if the truth be told.
It felt as if the England boss was rummaging around in the warm-up matches, hoping to pull a rabbit from a hat which would inspire the country to the latter stages of the competition and save his job in the process. The theme has continued here.
The folly of the treatment of Wayne Rooney on Monday was not simply in resting him in the first place, but then playing him in three different positions – midfield, wide left, top of a diamond – in the 34 minutes he was on the pitch after being asked to save the day.
Having started the first game in midfield for the first time in an England shirt and impressing, it is unfair to ask Rooney to chop and change.
England have had the farce of Harry Kane taking corners because Hodgson says he is the best in the squad at set-pieces, then in the very next game he is stripped of the responsibility.
There is no excuse for Hodgson not having a clear plan of action and a defined way of playing, given the breeze of a qualifying campaign left him with 40 weeks to prepare for this tournament. However, his mind seems muddled by the options
he has at his disposal and perhaps by a need to be seen to be positive by those Football Association officials who will soon decide on his future. He must now cram a blueprint into five days.
“We know our players and I know what team I am going to play next week if they are all fit,” said Hodgson, looking ahead to Monday’s last-16 tie in Nice against one of Hungary, Iceland, Portugal or Austria.
In the next breath, he admitted his strikers were a worry when the likes of Kane, Daniel Sturridge, Jamie Vardy and Marcus Rashford were supposed to be the salvation.
“That could also be a headache we have to do deal with,” said Hodgson. “All of them have shown a lot of qualities in the games but none of them as yet have really shown they are able to score the goals we need. We have a clear idea of the players we think we would like to play and we will have to wait and see in Nice.
“I thought Raheem Sterling, Adam Lallana and Harry Kane did well against Russia, but in the second game, when we weren’t scoring goals, we gave Vardy and Sturridge a chance and they scored two goals for us and won us the game.
“They started the game and now people might suggest, ‘Why did you start with those? Why didn’t Kane and Sterling start?’ That’s life.”
It is likely that Kane will now return to the starting line-up when the knockout stages begin but who he plays alongside if England persist with a 4-3-3 formation remains to be seen.
The suspicion lingers that Vardy is a better impact player but, with Sterling’s confidence shot, Lallana goalless in 26 internationals and Ross Barkley seemingly not trusted then the options quickly dwindle.
Sturridge will fill one of the roles and Lallana is likely to fill the other. Yet Dele Alli could be pushed forward which would allow Jordan Henderson to come into midfield.
Alternatively, Hodgson could consider asking teenager Rashford, who showed real maturity in his late cameo against Wales, to play as a wide forward.
Rashford would, at least, threaten to get in behind defences which England have struggled to do when confronted by rearguards retreating into defensive shells.
If Barkley, who along with Everton team-mate John Stones is the only outfield player not to feature so far, is out of favour without so much as kicking a ball then perhaps a genuine wide man in Andros Townsend should have been included.
The lack of creativity is an issue. The tally of 65 shots in three matches is a nod and a wink to England’s dominance, but also indicates how they run out of ideas in the final third and resort to shooting as and when.
The nucleus of a team looked to have been formed in the second-half revival against Wales and for Hodgson to rip that blueprint up has proved counterproductive.
The bald facts of England’s campaign to date reveal an inability to beat two mediocre teams and having to rely on a 92nd-minute goal in their other match. Without a proper plan, England will have no hope.
‘There is no excuse for not having a clear plan of action. And there appears little joined-up thinking’