Roy Hodgson was satisfied with
England's result and performance as they took a significant step towards next
summer's World Cup with a goalless draw against Ukraine in Kiev.
Hodgson's side stay top of Group H
and will qualify for Brazil if they win their final two Wembley qualifiers
against Montenegro and Poland.
After a game low on quality, and
played in front of 70,000 fans, the England boss said: “Before the game, the
feeling among a lot of people was that a draw would be a good result.”
He added: “I’m surprised to hear
what I thought was a good performance and result might be being seen as an
underwhelming performance.”
Like Roy Hodgson I too am surprised,
I’m surprised that he thought that was a good performance, if he believes that
to be true then I’d hate to see a bad one, if we produce that kind of
performance against Poland and Montenegro next month we can kiss the plane tickets to Brazil goodbye.
As usual we flatter to deceive, we looked
comfortable against low quality opposition, Moldova, but when it comes to playing
a half-decent side we revert to being a team who can’t string three paces
together and who look like 11 strangers playing together for the first time, it’s
simply not good enough.
It is quite unnerving that we just
can’t seem to beat a team who are challenging us for a World Cup place, that’s
four games against Ukraine, Poland and Montenegro, and that’s four underwhelming
performances and four draws, and if that happens in the next two games then we
aren’t going to Brazil.
When Hodgson was given the job I
was a little surprised but he had a good record so I gave him the benefit of
the doubt, however, he’s been in the job about 18 months and England have the
exact same problems they had when he first took over, and his tactics are far too
negative, last night just a bit more adventure could have won us that game but
from the outset it was clear Hodgson was happy to settle for a draw.
It was also clear watching last
night that the FA should have appointed Harry Redknapp, at least if he was in
charge England would play decent football and you’d actually look forward to
watching them.
If Hodgson wants to manage England
at a World Cup then next month he must be more willing to pick a team that’s
attack minded and that will actually go out there and try to dictate the play,
not one that just sits back and is comfortable waiting for the ref to blow his
whistle.
Assuming everyone is fit England
should field this team for the final two qualifiers:
GK - Hart
RB - Johnson
CB - Jagielka
CB - Cahill
LB - Baines
CM - Gerrard (c)
CM - Carrick
RW - Walcott
SS - Rooney
LW - Young
ST - Sturridge
I hope we do qualify and
go to Brazil next year but after last night’s performance I’m not holding my breath.
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