Roy Hodgson Defends Tactics as England Underwhelm in Final Euro 2016 Warm-Up
"?England manager Roy Hodgson has defended his decision to play Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy in what were effectively wide roles as the Three Lions scraped a 1-0 victory against Portugal in their final warm-up game before Euro 2016.
With Wayne Rooney playing in a more advanced role than anyone really expected, the formation looked more like 4-3-3 at times, and it limited the impact of all three forwards.
But despite the criticism, Hodgson wasn't prepared to accept there was a problem, pointing to a third consecutive win in the space of the last 13 days.
"We played with split strikers. If you play with them both through the middle with Rooney central as well you can't defend the wide areas. There were some moments where you might be right and Kane and Vardy were a little too wide but their job is to split and come together at the right times," the boss explained later (via the Guardian).
"If you play with a man in behind them, you have to make sure he has space in which to run," he added.
For me, this 1st half proved #England can only play with one main striker. Kane to start, Vardy impact sub. Easy.#ENGPOR #FanVoice
"I'm not prepared to accept that we didn't play well. Portugal are ranked higher than us in the FIFA rankings, so there is no reason to be dissatisfied. We looked good, we had composure throughout the game and it would have been better to play against 11.
"I'm very pleased with three wins, we never looked like conceding a goal. I'm not prepared to add my voice to the debate [on the strikers]. We need all of our players playing well, and I'm not prepared to stand here and criticise some players."
If I'm Roy Hodgson this is now the #England team I pick for Russia after last night's game.#FanVoice pic.twitter.com/VlPwRXSqq1
For Rooney, the result against the 8th best team in the world was a good way to sign off before heading to start the tournament for real.
"I think we're ready. We know in these games leading up to the tournament there have been a lot of changes to the team and we haven't been at our best," the captain told TheFA.com.
"But we've won all three games which is really important as a young team. We know that we have to improve though as in tournament football you need to be better to win games.
"We need to be playing better, we know that, but I think it's a really good sign when you're winning the games and not playing quite as well as you can."
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