Hodgson: England ready to fight for qualification

Roy Hodgson is not concerned about his England team finding themselves in a 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ qualification dogfight.

Wednesday's draw in Poland means the Three Lions will lose their narrow advantage in Group H should Montenegro, as expected, win their game in hand against San Marino in November.

Having already dropped two points against Ukraine at Wembley last month, few now believe England will be able to simply cruise towards the finals in Brazil in 2014.

Indeed, should they lose to Montenegro on 26 March in their only meaningful qualifier before next autumn, there will be a huge question mark over England's presence in South America.

However, Hodgson is confident his players have the character to meet such challenges - and may even be better for it.

"If it's a dogfight, it's a dogfight. There's nothing wrong with that," he said. "The good thing is we know we can stay and take part in a dogfight.

"We took part in a few dogfights during the Euros and we certainly dug in against Poland and showed the right sort of character and determination. "There will be some groups where one team shoots away and others where it's going to be quite close and I still think we will improve.

"But I think you'll find that come November we'll be very much in the mix. And if sometimes you've got to fight your way for something, rather than just sail through, that can help.

"Russia and Holland sailed through to the Euros but neither of them got out of their groups. Italy went there with loads of problems, we were led to believe, not least politically - and ended up in the final."

In fairness to Hodgson, his side have continually shown their battling qualities, and did so again in Warsaw to emerge with a point when they could easily have been beaten.

What they lack, and have done throughout his 11 games in charge, is a touch of class.

Cohesion must also be an issue when you have used 34 players in the space of five months, 25 of them more than once. "It is a lot," said Hodgson. "But it wouldn't be a fair criticism to say we've chopped and changed around.

"It's more a case of looking at several players to see if they can start to worry some of those who are up in 80 or 90 caps. And I think we are quite close to bedding a team down."

There is some truth to Hodgson's words, but in other ways he is miles off.

Italy's UEFA EURO 2012 qualification record was eight wins and two draws from 10 games - Spain won all eight matches and all 10 on the road to South Africa 2010 - so there is a correlation between qualifying form and tournament performance.

Best formation yet to be settled
More pertinently, the age-old question of how to get the best out of Wayne Rooney remains.

In addition, the absence of a physical driving force in midfield was apparent until Tom Cleverley was switched inside, whilst the loss of John Terry has created a massive hole at the back.

Impending returns from injury for Jack Wilshere, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are awaited with anticipation. On top form, all three would be very useful additions.

As it presently stands though, their ability has to be taken on trust and in Wilshere's case in particular, after 16 months out, he has to prove himself all over again.

There is time though, before that trip to Podgorica, where England lost a two-goal lead and Wayne Rooney lost his head 12 months ago, and Hodgson needs to use it wisely. The alternative is too grim to contemplate.

"It would be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs if I was to stand up in front of the players and tell them what they might be missing," said Hodgson. "They would regard that as slightly insulting.

"There's a lot of football still to be played and the bottom line is that this is not an easy group. It would have been lovely to have got off to a flyer and be sitting here with 12 points.

"But you don't get what you want by asking for it. You get what you want by playing for it. Ukraine played very well at Wembley and deserved their point. Poland played well and deserved their point.

"If you'd said to me at the start, given the circumstances, that we'd have eight points and be unbeaten at this point, I'd have been happy to accept it."

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Hodgson: Rain delay affected players

England boss Roy Hodgson feared his team had lost some of their spark during the 24-hour delay to their FIFA World Cup™ qualifier with Poland. The Three Lions left Warsaw grateful for a point after a 1-1 draw.

Wayne Rooney put the visitors in front and missed a glorious chance to double that lead, but Poland were good value for their draw in the end and could easily have had more to show for their efforts than a Kamil Glik equaliser that came after a mistake from Joe Hart.

Hodgson accepted neither side benefited from the postponement caused by Tuesday's deluge. But he certainly felt it affected his players.

"On Monday, after the training session on the pitch, the players were looking very sharp and lively," he said. "I didn't get that impression today. I don't want to give the impression we were hard done by and our opponents weren't.

"But if a game is postponed it is a little bit easier if you are on home soil," he added. "We had that extra day and night in the hotel."

Hodgson labelled the pitch as "dead", which may have contributed to some uncharacteristically sloppy passing, with Michael Carrick among those most affected. "There was no question the pitch was playable but it wasn't suited to quick passing," he said. "Both teams made quite a few passing mistakes. At half-time we were quite surprised how many passes we had sent astray."

The positive, which cannot be dismissed, is that England did not lose and, that UEFA EURO 2012 penalty shoot-out defeat to Italy excepted, remain unbeaten during Hodgson's 11 games in charge.

Their advantage in Group H is almost certain to have have disappeared by the time they next play again in March as second-placed Montenegro, who are just a point behind, face minnows San Marino next month. However, England's durability is something Hodgson is convinced will stand them in good stead.

"When you are in a qualifying group, or you are with a league club, there are days when things don't always go your way," he said. "On those days it is very important you still come away with a result.

"We would have loved to have won it but we didn't produce good enough football to do that," he added. "But we did do enough to avoid defeat and go away with a point."

So many of England's players failed to perform. Rooney was the most obvious example, despite his 32nd England goal, and following his failure to snaffle a chance provided by Manchester United team-mate Danny Welbeck, it was no surprise he was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

"A bit of both," was Hodgson's response when asked whether the reasoning behind his decision was physical or tactical. "There was an element of physicality because it looked as though he was tiring.

"He couldn't reproduce his excellent performance against San Marino and we wanted to get a little bit more life and energy into the central area, which [Tom] Cleverley was capable of giving us alongside [Steven] Gerrard and Carrick, so Wayne moved wider. Then, when we thought he was tiring we felt it was the right moment to bring on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who gave us some fresh legs."

Hodgson believed that move worked, although Poland looked equally likely to snatch a win at the death.

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Hodgson plays down reliance on 'old guard'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Roy Hodgson insists England's lacklustre 1-1 draw against Ukraine should not obscure the promise of a brighter future as his young stars helped preserve the side's unbeaten start to their 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ qualifying campaign.

Hodgson's team were on the verge of a shock defeat at Wembley on Tuesday as they laboured to recover from Yevhen Konoplyanka's stunning first-half strike. However, England finally sparked into life after Hodgson threw on Manchester United forward Danny Welbeck and Chelsea duo Daniel Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand in the second half.

The youthful trio gave the hosts more pace and energy after a painfully low-tempo first hour and it was Welbeck who won the penalty that Frank Lampard converted five minutes from full-time to salvage a point.

England ended an underwhelming night with ten men after captain Steven Gerrard was sent off for a second booking in the closing moments and the Liverpool midfielder will be suspended for the next qualifier against San Marino in October.

But Hodgson is convinced the performances of his young substitutes show England, who were without the injured Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Ashley Cole against Ukraine, can cope in the absence of their top stars. "I'm not sure I'm prepared to accept it was a bad performance, although I suppose people will always say that when we draw at home," Hodgson said.

"We did miss a lot of players, but the ones that came in, including the three youngsters who came on, acquitted themselves well. It shows we aren't totally reliant on the old guard. Welbeck had a good impact and Bertrand was excellent as well."

Hodgson was adamant England were worthy of at least a point, even though Ukraine often looked the more incisive outfit. "I suppose you are relieved when you are losing 1-0 and get a late equaliser, but I didn't think we did that badly," Hodgson said.

"We started very poorly in the first ten minutes, but once we got into our stride we did well. We went 1-0 down to a wonder strike and of course against a good Ukraine side you are going to be up against it. But I was pleased with the way we kept probing and with the way our players went about the task."

After routing Moldova 5-0 in their opening qualifier on Friday, this was the first true test of England's mettle. But Hodgson claimed that just underlined the quality of a group where the other significant threats are likely to come from Poland and Montenegro.

"I would be surprised if people thought it would be an easy group," he said. "We played better tonight than when we beat Ukraine at EURO 2012, but we didn't win this time."

Meanwhile, Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin believes the draw puts his side in a strong position to mount a serious bid to qualify as group winners. "For us it's a big result because we will compete to win the group alongside England, Poland and Montenegro," Blokhin said.

"I couldn't imagine a better start for us. We created problems for England that they couldn't solve in the first half. We had really good chances, but the young players were probably a little bit intimidated that we were winning against England.

"We got tired and made a mistake at the end for the goal. Even so, I'm very happy about the result."

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