THE defence for Roy Hodgson seems to come from two angles. The first is based on the assertion that he is a “nice man”. The second is that there is no other viable candidate for the England manager’s job.
The apologists at the FA also believe that Hodgson has overseen the emergence of a new generation of players and should be allowed to shape their progress. There is a flaw in this argument. If the 66-year-old has mishandled the youngsters so badly in Brazil, where is the sense in letting him remain in charge of their development?
The inclusion of Raheem Sterling in the team for the Italy game gave the illusion of adventure in the England side. It was superficial. Hodgson’s innate conservatism meant that any sense of boldness was counterbalanced by the use of Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney in negative roles.
Against Uruguay, Hodgson made a decision unworthy of a Sunday league coach, never mind a man of his extensive, multinational experience. He played just two midfielders, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. Think about it. Two midfielders. In a match in the World Cup finals.
It meant that Daniel Sturridge, Welbeck, Rooney and Sterling were looking over their shoulder and worrying about the middle of the park rather than scoring goals. It meant the central defence was left unprotected. It meant Gerrard’s lack of pace and mobility was exposed. It means Greg Dyke would have a case for gross misconduct if he decided to sack his manager. He won’t. Dyke is claiming Hodgson has done a good job. The mind boggles.
Hodgson had available to him a weapon that most sides in the tournament crave: pace. “Speed kills,” they say in American sport. Instead, England sleepwalked to their premature downfall at a tempo Italy and Uruguay would have ordered up in advance.
Gary Neville is clearly being groomed as a future England manager but, on the evidence of the collapse in Brazil, he should be fast-tracked into the job now. Could he have made a bigger hash of it than Hodgson?
This may not be the greatest England squad to grace a World Cup, but it is better than the first two group performances suggest. They have not played to their strengths. Instead, the selections and tactics accentuated their weaknesses. Most people’s instinct is to blame the men on the pitch, but they have been let down by their manager.
The above article first appeared in The Times and has been reproduced with permission.
Spot on!
Barkley and Lallana in for Rooney and Welbeck. We would have been able to keep more possession of the ball, whilst at the same time we would have had runners from midfield, creating angles and options in between the lines.
Spot on. Hogdson has no modern ideas. Fear kills. He sets up his teams not to lose.
Great plan by the Hodge and his sidekick to take off Engerland’s best player on the night (Henderson) to replace him with a big man then send Cahill forward to lump a few high ball in. Neaderthal tactics that I hope Brendan never ever uses.
England have the man they deserve.
Could someone, somewhere, please point me in the direction of the tiniest smidgin of evidence in support of the contention that R. Hodgson, Esq., is a “nice man”?
Being Irish, I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I can’t imagine why the FA would leave him in charge of England.
Only one possible answer to that I’m afraid: the FA must have been secretly overtaken by Russian oligarchs.
Cos the media says so, dontcha know !
Hodgson has made a career out of taking credit for even the slightest hint of any success and
distancing himself from blame for anything that went wrong.
But here’s the thing;the old public schoolboy network immediately jumps to his defence and trots out the same old bullshit about his fantastic record of mediocrity.
Roy was the man who transformed Swiss football and got them to the semi-finals of the World Cup.Well I think the man who should take credit for that was Stieleke the old Moenchengladbach player who was Manager before Hodgson.Switzerland had never won an international till he came along.In the couple of years he was there they won seven games which put them on the launch pad.Guess who took all the credit?
Roy speaks seven languages you know?But have you ever heard him speak anything other than cobblers?Roy wished the Uruguyan players “good luck” before the match…..and he said it in their own language!Try googling an English to Spanish translation of “Good Luck”.I think I could manage to pronounce that and I can’t even speak English proper.
He won leagues in Sweden and other obscure Scandinavian countries?Give Allardyce a shot at the Huyton and District with the Bow and Arrow and he would have won it every year till the cows came home.
No,Roy is a total fraud perpetuating a myth on the back of an old boys network.Dyke has just come out and said he’s got another 2 years to wreak havoc.Now Dyke doesn’t choose the England Manager;but he knows how it all works in the media.So now nobody will dare criticise Roy because to do so would contradict one of their own!
Happy football everybody.We’re stuck with him!
Mr. Hodgson speaks seven languages. Here they are in no particular order: shite, shite, shite, and shite, shite and shite and… voila!
The s**t I get here in the US about England’s performances in the last two world cups is unbelievable. No idea how much the Yanks are piling it on now. And here I was, certainly with grand delusions, thinking we could make a run. First time I was actually enthusiastic about a WC since 2002 especially with more Reds featuring. No f—ing chance with Chronic the hedgHodg. Certainly thought lessons were learned after Italy. Trouble is, everyone and their halfwit cousins learned but for the Hodg. Somewhere in his mind he must truly think he’s a genius. Please let this be the case. Either that, or his look of severely ongoing constipation means that the s–t has finally reached his brain. And if the FA can’t see that themselves it must signify they’ve shite brains as well. So be it. But as Mr. Evans rightly said, it wasn’t the fault of the players.
Go Luis! Err, actually please don’t.
Watching Luis do his magic is infinitely more pleasing than suffering any tragedy befalling England.
I would suffer a Norman invasion if it meant being able to watch Luis.
Loved how the media goaded Roy over how good Luis is. They realised but he didn’t.
And saying Luis had to prove himself on this stage to be world class – not realising Luis was second highest scorer in South Africa! Not done your homework Roy? Not that it would help you even if you were diligent.
Inept or incompetent, I can’t decide.
Let’s hope that Gary Neville takes over from Roy soon and does the business, otherwise you know who England will be coming for.
We can’t let that happen.
We don’t need 8 full backs to choose from, we need two or three good ones.
The vicious circle comes from the coaching fraternity (which is slowly changing)
To get a managers job in England, a top job you have to have been rated as a top player who won stuff. That’s the only risk criteria taken on top jobs.This player who becomes manger, when coached was probably taught to play one or two ways in a very structured manner. Press play and repeat for 40 years and we wonder why foreign players and coaches travel well and English players don’t. Let’s look at the players selected for England. The majority played for Liverpool , Everton and Southampton. These clubs had progressive flexible managers who worked with the players they had and applied formations and tactics accordingly, to get the best out of “their group”.
Martinez,pocchetino,Rodgers how does that equal hodgson! Can you get any further removed in approaches to the game?
Until we learn that coaches need to know how the game works as a whole, are able to analyse,communicate effectively, understand personalities and people,empower players to solve problems on the pitch for themselves, you will end up with one dimensional coaching in England by successful players who have won stuff.
Sounds daft but managers need to be judged on coaching abilities, not how many goals they scored or medals won
rant over looking forward to some fresh blood for LFC and a good run and some shiny stuff next season.
Why is he getting such an easy ride from the mainstream uk media?
Other managers have been made into various vegetables or given daft nicknames. Yet he gets nothing but support?
The same defence is applied to Alastair Cook. It’s a red herring. Neither are good enough. Whose going to be worse?