Roy Hodgson hoping England players will pay him back for his loyalty as fans …
To him, the four draws against Ukraine (twice), Poland and Montenegro are
markers of efficiency, not soporific letdowns. He cannot accept that picking
up a sufficient number of points to lead the group with two home fixtures
still to play is anything other than a job well done.
Beyond this rational approach, in the new democracy of instant mass opinion,
international football is now “rubbish”, 90 minutes spent watching England
is time “wasted” and the hot-potato passing of Hodgson’s midfield is an
affront to the nation.
The comedian David Schneider joked that the 0-0 draw in Kyiv on Tuesday night
was ended not by a referee but “Dignitas”.
If the team feel persecuted, it is not by “the press”. However robustly
Hodgson defends his players (and he is extremely good at that), the Football
Association must be concerned by the sheer sourness of the public mood.
A generation reared on Champions League football are less tolerant of
unexciting pragmatism. However highly they value the prize of actually
qualifying for a World Cup finals in Brazil, they evidently will not accept
their England team playing with anything less than the swagger of the top
four teams in the Premier League.
The burden on Hodgson to win the 2014 World
Cup has largely been lifted by a combination of cold reality and
Greg Dyke, the FA chairman, who stayed away from Kyiv to attend an important
“business meeting” after saying there was no realistic hope of Steven
Gerrard raising the trophy in Rio.
But the pressure on him to produce a team capable of achieving more than a
draw against his three main rivals in Group H is growing by the day.
The good news for the grumpy multitudes is that England can no longer treat
stalemates like gold nuggets. A return of four points from a possible 12
against the three other group contenders has forced England’s hand in the
home games against Montenegro and Poland.
If Hodgson’s plan was to set these two up for the knock-out blow, he will need
his best players not to pull out after exacerbating injuries in big Premier
League fixtures, as Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge did after the Manchester
United game at Anfield.
The system is conspiring against England’s manager, whose occasional
tetchiness is partly based on sensitivity about his standing in the game.
Hodgson often cites his 35 years in management as a riposte to those who
accuse him of negativity or not emphasising ball retention.
Against that he admits to a “change in tactics” early in the Ukraine game, so
that England played long balls out from the back to relieve the expected
early onslaught.
The truth is that he rules nothing out: including direct play and conservative
changes (James Milner to the centre of midfield, when Jack Wilshere was
taken off).
Afterwards he hailed absent friends: the strikers who should make a difference
in the Wembley games. But should Wayne Rooney have stayed in the camp for
the Moldova and Ukraine assignments? Here we stray on to dangerous medical
ground.
If Rooney misses the Manchester United-Crystal Palace game this weekend, we
can be sure his head wound is as serious as his Facebook horror snap said it
was.
If he plays, after a break in Portugal, people will ask why he was unable to
wear protective headgear, 12 days after Phil Jones accidentally kicked him
in the face; or at least stayed in the England set-up to help Rickie
Lambert, or perhaps sit on the bench in Kyiv in case of emergencies.
The consensus is that Rooney’s absence was broadly justified, but the
Sturridge case is more nuanced, and typical of the complications Hodgson has
to face.
The road trip is over. At home, the team will have to be set up positively,
despite the possibility that Poland and Montenegro will both also need to
win to stay involved. Only if Rooney, Sturridge and Danny Welbeck are all
available will Hodgson feel he has gained an edge missing in the away
fixtures.
Fighting the charge of profligacy in possession is a waste of his energy. Theo
Walcott, Wilshere and even Frank Lampard at times were below the accuracy
rates that would be expected from their clubs.
England’s generosity in donating the ball to the opposition is historically
infectious. At school, they would be put in different classes to stop the
bad behaviour spreading.
The players who have given Hodgson such a PR problem with the public now need
to help him twice at Wembley. He has defended them enough.