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Hodgson’s risky team selection unsettles FA
CHANTILLY: Roy Hodgson’s unsuccessful selection gamble in England’s final group game of Euro 2016 has left senior figures within the Football Association questioning
CHANTILLY: Roy Hodgson’s unsuccessful selection gamble in England’s final group game of Euro 2016 has left senior figures within the Football Association questioning whether he has made a serious error of judgment that could jeopardise the team’s progress and potentially have repercussions for his future as manager.
While Hodgson is adamant he has “no regrets” about making six changes for the goalless draw against Slovakia, his employers are distinctly unimpressed by the risk-taking that finished with England losing their place at the top of Group B and forfeiting the chance to play one of the third-placed finishers in the first knockout round.
Wayne Rooney is also understood to be aggrieved at Hodgson’s decision to leave him out, and at the calculated gamble of breaking up the side that played so impressively in the second half of the 2-1 win against Wales. Rooney had expected to play and Hodgson’s decision to rest his captain is one of the issues that has troubled the people who will decide at the end of the tournament whether England’s manager warrants a new contract. England’s inability to beat Slovakia has gone down badly with various FA executives because it means Wales will have, in theory, the easier game as group winners while Hodgson’s team will face the Group F runners-up, possibly Portugal, in Nice on Monday.
England have also been left with the daunting prospect of meeting France in quarters. Behind the scenes there is a firm belief that they did not have to make life so difficult for themselves — and that Hodgson went too far in giving half a dozen players their first starts of the tournament.
The issue is whether it will be held against him should England not make it past their next two games and what would happen if, for instance, they were to go out against France in a match that might have been avoided.
Greg Dyke, the FA’s chairman, has already made it clear that England may have to reach the semi-finals if Hodgson is to continue in the job through to the 2018 World Cup.