Roy’s no tactical genius... but he will be a diamond if he starts with Vardy and Sturridge ROBBIE
I REMEMBER a game playing for Manchester City when we were 3-0 down at half time with 10 men, so the only option was to go all out and see what happened. We won 4-3. The reaction afterwards was incredible, everyone saying what a masterstroke it was to be so bold with a man down and take the game to Tottenham, but the truth was, we didn’t have any alternative.
In many ways, England’s win over Wales was like that.
So many people have said Roy Hodgson was brave and tactically brilliant at half time when he made big changes, but really, what else was he going to do?
I’m not denigrating him. He did the right thing and England deserved to win.
But the changes were forced upon him.
Roy’s job was on the line, as simple as that, and he didn’t need to be a tactical genius to know he had to do something different.
In fact, in some ways I actually think he got it wrong.
This isn’t a Liverpool- Manchester United thing, (though I’ve had enough banter with the Stretford End to know they won’t believe me...), but I think Roy went too far when he brought young Rashford on.
Obviously an excellent player, but I felt with numbers already there it probably wasn’t needed.
It just made everything that bit more congested in the box.
With Sturridge and Vardy already on and playing well, and Wayne Rooney able to get up and support them brilliantly, putting on another striker actually made less space.
They won – that’s the bottom line – but Roy will know he has to make changes now.
Maybe it’s a bit like Bobby Robson in 1990 when he stumbled upon the formation that got England to their World Cup semi-final – Roy’s got to go with Sturridge and Vardy.
If we are being brutally honest, England haven’t played well in the build-up to this tournament even though they have been winning.
The only time they have really done well was when they were 2-0 down to Germany, got Vardy on and switched to a diamond which the Germans he was a kid at City and you could see then he was a natural. It didn’t take a genius to see what he could become.
For whatever reason, he hasn’t quite got where he should yet.
Injuries have played a part and maybe there is something on the psychological side too.
Certainly, for some players all this sports science stuff puts doubt in the mind.
If a sports scientist told me I couldn’t play because of potential for injury, I’d have told him to do one and played anyway.
But football is different now, and not always for the better. Sturridge is fiti and fresh because he hasn’t played that much for Liverpool thish season, and he’s scored a almost a goal a game recently.
Vardy has done the same for England too, and I’m a great believer in going with the man with the form and momentum, especially in tournaments, where you need rhythm and confidence.
If I’m honest, I always believed I was a victim of managers ignoring how important that momentum is. Take Euro ’96.
Alan Shearer hadn’t scored in tw two years for England, but Terry Venables told him he was his first choice no matter what.
That was great for Shearer, not so good for me.
I was in the form of my life, but I had to score 80 or 90 goals before I got a cap.
How was I supposed to feel getting a slap in the face like that when I knew I would score in international football, given the chance?
Still, it did work out for Shearer, to be fair.
I still have regrets about being ignored for England though, when I was really firing.
I honestly feel my goalscoring talents were wasted at times. Roy Hodgson can’t afford to make the same mistake now with Sturridge and Vardy, because we can still go out against Slovakia, who are really dangerous opponents.
They battered Russia for 70 minutes, and they beat Germany a few weeks ago.
They will beat us too, if we don’t pick the right team... and that team was discovered almost by accident in the second half against Wales.
No excuses, Roy has to go with it.