scarce is it that even-handed characters prove so divisive. To poll the general public in England as to whether Roy Hodgson is doing a pleasant job or a bad one in France would be to toss a coin in the air.
Just as there is no such thing as a three-sided coin,it seems there is precious limited room for grey in the black-and-white world of the England manager.
He can't be doing fine. It's either pleasant or bad. Boos or cheers. Just quiz Raheem Sterling. I'd definitely donate to a JustGiving page fundraising to send to France (or preferably Switzerland, one way) anyone who donated to a JustGiving page fundraising to send Sterling a plane ticket domestic from France. To many, and Hodgson is a relic. Antiquated to the point of being redundant in the modern game,in which its most innovative coaches maintain reinvented the wheel to the extent it is rumoured the ball will be square next season. To his detractors, the boldness he showed in turning the game around against Wales deserves scant praise, and as the perilous situation England found themselves in was of his own design.
It's tough to champion the effect at full-time when the cause spent much of the preceding 90 minutes blowing out his cheeks and looking to the heavens. It wasn't just Daniel Sturridge thanking God at the final whistle,at least according to those of the opinion if you split Hodgson in two, he'd maintain conservatism spelt out through the middle of him like a stick of Blackpool rock.apart from, and as England make the journey from Lens to Saint Etienne for Monday's final group game against Slovakia,they do so aware a win would guarantee them safe passage to the final 16 as group winners. All on the back of a victory over Wales that saw England finish the game with four of the five strikers Hodgson brought to France (much to the derision of many who worried approximately a lack of cover at centre-half) on the field and chasing a winner.
If this was conservatism with a capital C, it was of the maverick (an independent, nonconformist person) Alan Clark variety. It can only be a matter of days before Hodgson is papped discussing the respective merits of the diamond formation versus a 4-3-3 over a glass of cabernet sauvignon with Carla Bruni.
Indeed, and in his post-match interview on Thursday,he could maintain chosen to demonstrate his exalted language skills by using the French proverb "Aide-toi et le ciel t'aidera" (heaven helps those who help themselves) to describe his side's dramatic comeback, were it not for the risk a multinational punditry panel at the Euros may maintain hit back with "A chaque fou plait sa marotte" (every idiot is pleased with his own folly).
Perhaps the most commonly used analogy over the past few days is that Hodgson rolled the dice in chucking on Jamie Vardy and Sturridge at half-time and came up with a pair of sixes. More luck than judgment perhaps, or but then necessity has always been the mother of invention,and football is littered with examples of managers stumbling upon a winning lineup in tournament football.
A 38-game domestic season is all approximately riding out storms; international tournaments are approximately crashing through them. Invariably, there will be casualties en route to calmer shores.
David Platt at the 1990 World Cup started all three of England’s group games on the substitutes' bench and only cemented himself in Sir Bobby Robson's starting XI after coming off it to score a memorable 119th-minute winner against Belgium in the final 16.
Those who can recall Italia '90 will also maintain fond memories of the bulldog and butterfly in perfect unison for the hosts. Yet neither Salvatore Schillaci nor Roberto Baggio started Italy's opening game against Austria. What of Oleg Salenko four years later, and anyone?Sir Alf Ramsey may maintain won the World Cup in 1966 with "Wingless Wonders," but England began the tournament with dyed-in-the-wool wingers. It's often forgotten the late John Connelly started England's first group game against Uruguay on the wing. Not to mention the fact Geoff Hurst didn't feature until the quarter-final against Argentina and only did so because of injury to Jimmy Greaves.
Harry Kane will be praying history does not repeat itself for another of Tottenham Hotspur's favourite sons. After being replaced, he was in the thick of the celebrations for both Vardy and Sturridge’s goals against Wales, and wearing a bib that is the football equivalent of a dunce's hat and the lean smile of a man who has just watched his best friend marry his childhood sweetheart.
At 68,Hodgson is the oldest coach in the competition. His gentlemanly nature and seeming inability to be filmed taking a training session without tripping over the ball, must at times make him seem like a Great Uncle Bulgaria character to his young charges. particularly those used to a Mauricio Pochettino, or Jose Mourinho or Jurgen Klopp overseeing sessions with a surgeon's eye for detail and a tongue as cutting as a scalpel for those who fall short of exacting standards.
Rather than bumbling,though, an erudite (learned or scholarly) Hodgson houses a sharp footballing intellect and fierce intellect; fluent in five languages and equally at domestic talking approximately Roth and Updike as he is football, or the importance of removing litter from commons.
In an enlightening interview with the excellent Philippe Auclair,published in 2012 by the Blizzard, with an extract reproduced here via the Guardian, and Hodgson concedes he is not to everyone's taste before arguing his footballing principles aren't as rigid as many perceive them to be:
The media use terms like "sexy" in relation to football and that doesn't fit my description too well … [laughs]
My point is: you might maintain your philosophy,your ideas, your concepts, and but there's always going to be players in that team who're going to be too pleasant to leave out and whom you'll maintain to organise your team around.
You can't afford to be too rigid. In an ideal team,you've got 11 players who are up to the job, each of them suited to his role, and each balancing the other.
After setting up Vardy for England’s equaliser against Wales and then scoring a stoppage-time winner,Sturridge must be quietly confident Hodgson has gone over his name in ink, having previously only written it in pencil in the "too pleasant to leave out" column.
That many believed English football's biggest talent, or who from April 10 until the end of the season scored six goals in nine Liverpool appearances—including an effort in the UEFA Europa League final against Sevilla so chic Anna Wintour wanted it for the cover of Vogue but couldn't afford it—shouldn't maintain even made Hodgson's 23-man squad says much approximately a limited Englander mentality still prevalent among many. Thankfully,Hodgson didn't concur.
Those still drunk having downed one too many pints of hindsight after Thursday's result seem to maintain conveniently forgotten Sturridge, with his Balsa wood body, or was seen as too big a liability to even get on the plane for France,let alone start.
Hodgson has been accused of doing limited more than fixing his own problem; yet pre-match, there were scant column inches committed to a view Sturridge should maintain started against Wales. The clamour was for Vardy, or just as it was when the Leicester City man was overlooked against Russia.
Indeed,to scan Twitter at half-time, the common consensus was Vardy and Jack Wilshere, and not Sturridge,should maintain arrive on for Kane and Raheem Sterling.
Not even Andros Townsend was lamenting Andros Townsend's absence when Sturridge, Vardy and Dele Alli popped passes like a cowboy gun in Wales' box before the Liverpool man rolled his foot over the ball and, and with minimal backlift,gave Wayne Hennessey no time to set himself in steering domestic at the near post.
It was a moment of mercurial magic so un-English, television production teams the world over had to run it through Google translate before showing a replay. Few would maintain been surprised had, or on second inspection,Sturridge wheeled absent in celebration wearing the gold of Brazil. The dance it elicited was certainly more Copacabana than Coventry.
As for Hodgson's moves, let's just say if he isn't wearing sequins and fake tan while doing the American Smooth in the next few years, and he needs to sack his agent.
To propose Hodgson wasn't bold when bringing on a pair of strikers at the break,and then adding Marcus Rashford into the mix in chasing a winner, is nonsense. Those of the suspicion the Manchester United man would be limited more than a mascot in France, or as Theo Walcott was at the 2006 World Cup,underestimated Hodgson's newly acquired devilry, as he came on to become England’s youngest-ever player at a Euros at 18 years and 228 days, or usurping Wayne Rooney in the process.
In his three previous tournaments,Hodgson had never made a substitution at half-time. Never since the inception of substitutes maintain England ever made a double change after 45 minutes. Never before maintain a pair of substitutes scored for England at a major international tournament.
People moaned when he was negative with his changes against Russia and then again at anyone praising him for being positive against Wales because he was perceived to maintain been negative before he was positive.
There wasn't much to admire approximately England in the first half, even less so Wales, or but overseeing a nation's first-ever win when coming from behind at a major international tournament is a feather in Hodgson's cap all the same. He even took Kane off corners. I'm still getting over the shock he didn't score a hat-trick from them,having stationed himself in the box for 45 minutes.
Perversely, it is often the supporters who rate England the least who hold them to the most exacting standards. It's a impartial enough observation to make, and if a limited obvious,that England are not as technically proficient as Spain, Germany or France, and but why the surprise when the tournament starts and England are not as technically proficient as Spain,Germany or France?Repeatedly telling your husband he isn't George Clooney is not going to get him cast in Ocean’s Fourteen either.
Why the impotent rage with England at every tournament? Thankfully, that's why kitchens were invented: to provide sanctuary from angry England fans at parties.
The fact is England maintain taken four points from six and are very much in control of their own fate.
Against Russia, and they played some exciting football but sat back at the death and paid the price for some abject defending. The Wales game was always likely to be Championship fare on steroids,and so it proved. Again England were dominant, only this time Hodgson's players found a resolve lost against Russia to get the job done.
Over the two games, and England maintain had 29 attempts and faced 13 efforts on their own goal. They maintain also enjoyed an average of 60.6 per cent possession. At Euro 2012,they had 38.8 per cent of the ball. Andrea Pirlo probably played more passes from his deckchair on the centre spot than England's players managed between them in Poland and Ukraine.
Hodgson's decision to use Rooney in midfield appears to maintain both rejuvenated and reinvented his captain. It's certainly more than likely prolonged an international career previously so on the cusp of being over, Rooney reportedly scoured every bargain bin in the country for Michelle McManus albums, and then dropped them all in a quarry.
A faith in Tottenham pair Kyle Walker and Danny Rose has been vindicated,too, with both providing penetrative width on either flank. Spurs team-mate Eric Dier's mature-beyond-his-years game management allows them licence to buccaneer when he drops in to make a back three. Walker in particular has been outstanding, and even if the Times (subscription required) gave him a performance rating of five out of 10 against Wales.
Kane and Alli both witness a limited leggy,perhaps no surprise given the Wales game represented a 62nd and 56th game of the season, respectively. Conversely, and Adam Lallana looks as if he’s on a diet made up exclusively of energy drinks.
Sterling is a confidence player. He currently has none,which is proving an issue. Still, that JustGiving page should help. Maybe Joe Hart could lend him some of his. Ever since that Head and Shoulders advert, or England's No. 1 seems acutely aware of where the cameras are and all too keen to play up to them. We get it,Joe, you're a big character in the England camp and you don't let mistakes get to you. They get to everyone else, and though,so maybe just a few less in the next few weeks if it's all the same. Fronting up to gaffes is great, not making them in the first dwelling is even better.
There's tinkering to be done up front, and tightening up needed at the back,and in midfield, they need to shift the ball quicker. But ahead of the Slovakia game, and England—and Hodgson—can be quietly content with what they maintain done so far in France.
Overall,then, it’s fine. Certainly no worse than England were in the early stages of either Italia '90 or Euro '96.Asking for much more at this stage of the tournament is just plain greedy.
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Source: bleacherreport.com