Tag: England

Roy Hodgson says that he has not closed the door on a return to international football

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Roy Hodgson says that he has not closed the door on a return to international football for striker Andy Carroll, who has been suffering for form and fitness ever since completing a permanent move to West Ham United.

The national team is currently rich with a long list of top strikers. The likes of Charlie Austin have also been knocking the door, which makes it extremely difficult for Carroll to return to the national team. The 26-year-old has managed only seven goals in the last two seasons. This form is not sufficient for him to be selected for the England team.

The national team is at a crucial stage whereby Hodgson has to come up with a strong team capable of winning the Euro 2016 or even reaching the latter stages. Doing well in this competition is extremely important for the national team due to their disappointing World Cup. England have had a strong set of results since the qualification campaign started. This, again, makes it difficult for Hodgson to bring the changes in the team. The former Liverpool striker has managed to appear in nine internationals for England, but he has managed only two goals in these matches. His last goal for England was in 2012. (more…)

Roy Hodgson did a lot of experimentation in the Italy game

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Roy Hodgson did a lot of experimentation in the Italy game the other night and it all fell apart at the start. The Three Lions played clueless Football and had they not been that lucky, they could have been trailing 0-2 or 0-3 at the completion of the first half.

Hodgson’s fault in the first half was that he installed wrong players at wrong places and thus, nothing went to the plan.

Now that everybody has realized that Wayne Rooney is not as effective playing in the midfield as he is playing upfront, there was no need for him to be played in the playmaking role. He should have been used as a striker straightaway, but, Hodgson went for Theo Walcott instead.

And, not only that, rather than playing Phil Jones in the backline, he pushed him in the midfield and actually, held Michael Carrick back which was another bizarre thing.

With that sort of formation, England was never going to test Italy which had a steady team playing with very good tactics.

However, finally some common sense prevailed and Hodgson started making changes close to half time and thankfully, he made the right changes. (more…)

Jack Wilshere problems after Drinking and Smoking

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Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere has had problems involving drinking and smoking which has caused Arsene Wenger on having to step up and establish meetings with the English player regarding his actions.

“The smoking? Of course I regret it. I’ve been seen before doing it. I said then I made a mistake and I have made a mistake again.People make mistakes.I’m young and I’ll learn from it. I realize the consequences it has and the effect on kids growing up. I have kids myself and I don’t want them growing up to think their dad smokes and it’s OK for a footballer to smoke because it’s not.’’ That was one of the statements released by Wilshere as he expressed his regrets.

After Wilshere said those things, it was believed that Jack Wilshere had stopped doing those harmful things such as drinking and smoking but a few weeks ago some pictures were leaked to the internet which displayed Wilshere with a shisha pipe in a nightclub as the player was still recovering from an ankle surgery that he sustained some time ago.

It has become more than clear that Arsene Wenger is not happy with these actions of Jack Wilshere but there are some managers that have actually admitted in saying that Wilshere’s lifestyle is no problem for them and this is the case of England’s Roy Hodgson. (more…)

England boss Roy Hodgson confident on his Team for Euro 2016

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After managing to win the last six matches without exception, England boss Roy Hodgson reckons that the Three Lions will be heading to the Euro 2016 as one of the favourites to win the trophy.

England are still searching for their first major trophy since the 1966 World Cup. They suffered yet another embarrassment at a major tournament after being knocked out of the World Cup 2014 at the group stages. Since then, England have undergone several changes with Hodgson bringing in fresh blood in the form of players like Raheem Sterling.

They have been a major reason behind the wins in both Euro 2016 qualifying matches and friendlies in the last few months. More importantly, England have also been playing much better football compared to recent years. (more…)

UKRAINE IMPRESS

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Ukraine have been one of the surprise packages of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign for far. They were not expected as one of the contenders in the group, especially when they opened the campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Slovakia. Since then, however, Ukraine have notched up three consecutive victories and it has propelled them to a great position in the table. Manager Mykhailo Fomenko, who took charge of the team during difficult circumstances, says that he is extremely happy with the discipline shown by the players. The latest win came in the form of a 3-0 score against Luxembourg.

Admittedly, Luxembourg were not expected to get anything from the match, but still Ukraine played well and will be taking a lot of confidence into the upcoming matches. Slovakia continue to lead the table after getting four consecutive wins. They have a three-point advantage over Spain, who are only ahead on goal difference. Ukraine are stll rank outsiders for the European Championships, at 100/1 (England can be backed at odds of 12/1). (more…)