Should Hodgson have kept his job?

[Canaryboy]

Since Hodgson got the job fans and the media have pretty much written England off in two major tournaments before they have even started, and implied that they are tournaments used to build the England team of the future. I think this is ridiculous. You spend a long time qualifying for a tournament, and often big nations fail to do that (Holland and Portugal more than once). Using a tournament to help build a future squad, isn't that what the Under 21's is for? Don't you spend two years building the squad which you then take to a tournament, rather than two years qualifying and then using the tournament as a platform for new players? 

In my opinion he got the squad selection wrong, he got the tactics wrong, and just failed big time at the world cup - very little positive came out of it, we've seen Gerrard retire from international football when he could have done a job for the next couple of years. He has been inconsistent in his policies - stating that he won't have a player back once retired, but proceeding to pick Ben Foster. 

I just think that he's a terrible manager for the national team, if he wants to pick kids before they are ready and leave quality experienced pros like Cole and Terry at home, then why isn't he managing the Under 21's? He seems to escaped criticism, which I find incredible considering the stick that other failed managers have come into (Wally with the brolly, turnip head). Not advocating that the media start hounding on him, but how have we gone from massively over rating our national team and thinking we can win these major tournaments, to expecting us to fail and then not complaining when we do?

Why is he getting a third crack at a tournament?

Gareth Barry had an excellent season at Everton, and I've never understood why Crouch was written off as an England player, reached double figures again for Stoke and scored 22 in 42 for England until stopped getting picked in 2010.

If the justification for leaving Cole, Barry, Terry, and possibly even Crouch, at home was that they aren't 'the future' and probably won't manage another international tournament, then that's just lame isn't it? What did Chris Smalling do last season to justify inclusion in a World Cup squad? Much less than people like Gareth Barry and John Terry? 

 

[Bethnal Yellow and Green]

I think he should have kept the job, England are considerably better under him than they were under Capello, with a much more limited squad.

It's one thing to say that England should purely focus on the tournament at hand and not pick players with potential while there are experienced players who are better, but at the end of their careers available, but this is exactly what Germany did in the tournaments building up to the World Cup. They identified that Neuer, Ozil, Khedira etc. were going to be expceptional players and moved older players, who were prehaps better at the time, out of their way. It's worth remembering that Neuer was critised a lot around the 2010 World Cup, mainly in the build up due to some dodgey form - but Low came out and said "he will be number one in the world, and will be number one for Germany". It took a lot of pressure off a young players shoulders and helped him grow - so by 2014 he had no nerves and was outstanding.

Whilst Hodgson didn't get every decision right, I think he did relatively well. England went out on the finest of margins in a very tight group. England were the better team for a lot of the Italy and Uruguay games and possibly unfortunate to lose both.

For England's sake I'm gald he will stay on and can continue to build a better team - players such as Shaw, Sterling, Barkley etc will be that much better for having the experience of going to Brazil.

 

[Canaryboy]

In Hodgsons defence, we did have Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain missing, two players that he has brought on a fair bit for England. 

Still thought he should have identified the fact that Terry is still the best English centre back, and think that Ashley Cole should have been taken too - we had two left backs with very little tournament experience. 

 

[Canaryboy]

And the decision not to take Gareth Barry may be one that he regrets, now that Lampard and Gerrard have retired. That leaves us with these as our centre midfielders....

Jordan Henderson (24)

Jack Wilshere (22)

Ross Barkley (20)

Tom Cleverley (25)

What's he going to do now, recall Barry after not taking him to Brazil? Recall Michael Carrick after not taking him to Brazil?

Why on earth didn't he take Carrick come to think of it, poor season but a quality player. 

He has shunned two very good experienced pros, and now has to go back and try and build bridges with them or be left with inexperienced or very mediocre centre midfielders. Carrick almost retired from England a few years ago, and I wonder whether he would even accept a call up now. 

 

[splutcho]

I think a sacking would have been harsh. The 2 games we lost were done so narrowly and could have easily gone the other way. Uruguay especially was a game we dominated but got caught out on the break, and obviously Suarez doesn't need a 2nd invitation to score. But the country really blew it out of proportion and made us out to be far worse than we were.

I'll have to disagree with you about young players because I think that's exactly the way to go about it, and our youngsters will be better for the experience. John Terry retired from international football so that's a moot point, and I'm glad Gerrard has retired because he's one of the most over rated players of the last decade.

Perhaps in hindsight you were right about Cole, but hindsight is wonderful!

 

[Tomasz Blazak]

I'm not an England fan (Polish) so I can give a little bit of an outsider perspective.

I personally think the FA are mental for not sacking him. He doesn't play to the strengths of his players, his tactics are incredibly limited and one-dimensional and his England team have been well and truly sussed out by the rest of the world. The football Hodgson's England play is absolutely abhorrent for the neutral. Worse than watching us under Hughton.

This England squad is the most limited for probably 25+ years, but there's still enough talent in it to play proper football. Earlier in the thread, there was talk of losses by small margins, but when you set up with 9 on the edge of your own box and your gameplan is entirely hoof it into the channels and hope something comes off, there's rarely a risk of being picked apart by teams. Which in itself is one of the things that's wrong with Hodgson. You have players like Danny Sturridge who scored 22 last season and don't give him any service. It's bizarre. All of England's best players are attacking ones, yet Hodgson plays ultra-defensive tactics. Very strange.

Certainly managers out there who could do much better with the resources available in my view.

 

[gingerpele]

And the decision not to take Gareth Barry may be one that he regrets, now that Lampard and Gerrard have retired. That leaves us with these as our centre midfielders....

Jordan Henderson (24)

Jack Wilshere (22)

Ross Barkley (20)

Tom Cleverley (25)

What's he going to do now, recall Barry after not taking him to Brazil? Recall Michael Carrick after not taking him to Brazil?

Why on earth didn't he take Carrick come to think of it, poor season but a quality player. 

He has shunned two very good experienced pros, and now has to go back and try and build bridges with them or be left with inexperienced or very mediocre centre midfielders. Carrick almost retired from England a few years ago, and I wonder whether he would even accept a call up now. 

I agree Barry should have gone to the World Cup, probably instead of Lampard.

But Henderson, Wilshere and Barkley are great players. And we actually have some nice players coming through. Almost certainly not WC winning, but we don't have a right to be and I think thats often the problem. The over the top expectation that England should be fantastic, and instead of facing reality we just moan about how rubbish all our players/the team/the manager our when in fact they aren't rubbish at all.

I'm not Hodgsons biggest fan, but in my opinion he's starting to go the right way. Long way to go tactically and finalising the best starting XI. But watching Sterling and Sturridge for England and Liverpool is great, with others starting to pick up at club level we could actually be considered dark horses in the next couple tournaments if it all comes together.