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…)