Euro 2016: Five reasons why Roy Hodgson and England got it completely wrong in France

Hodgson's selection and lack of passion on the sidelines left a lot to be desired

Jack Wilshere reacts to England's defeat by Iceland to eliminate them from Euro 2016 (Getty)

Poor selection

Ross Barkley’s confidence was shot to pieces towards the end of the season - gunned down by Everton’s miserable campaign that saw manager Roberto Martinez lose his job – to that extent that he should have been put out of his misery and given a summer on the beach. To take him to France was almost cruel, especially as it denied Andros Townsend the chance to come into the England squad. OK, the winger’s club Newcastle United were relegated at the end of the season but his form was hot. Plus, he would have added width to the England attack which was so badly lacking.

To expect the full-backs to provide all the creativity on the flanks was asking too much and Raheem Sterling was the only out-and-out winger in the pack – and his form was abysmal towards the tail-end of last season for Manchester City. Townsend should have travelled instead of Roy Hodgson banking on Barkley who, in the end, did not kick a ball.

How Jack Wilshere was ever on the plane to France is also a mystery. The Arsenal midfielder started one match for Arsenal last season. Does that warrant selection ahead of Danny Drinkwater, who had a sensational campaign and led Leicester City to the title? It did - but it shouldn’t have done.

Baffling tactics

In England’s final game before they left for France, against Portugal at Wembley, Hodgson played Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy up front with Wayne Rooney breaking from deep through the middle. This forced Kane and Vardy out wide and gave them the added burden of tracking the opposing full-backs.

It was a flawed tactic in many ways. First, it nullified the goal threat of England’s two hottest goalscorers: when balls were put into the box it was Rooney attempting to get on the end of them. Second, it didn’t play to Rooney’s strengths: breaking into the box as the frontrunner is no longer his thing. Third, it stopped Dele Alli playing in the role behind the front two which is where he performed so well in tandem with Kane last season.

But the bigger issue was that Hodgson was still tinkering in the final warm-up game, still unsure of his formation. To be unsure of your best XI would be one thing. Swapping a right-back for a right-back, both drilled in how the team plays, would be no disaster. Changing formations – despite Hodgson dismissing 4-4-2s, diamonds and the like as irrelevant before the tournament began when a journalist dared ask him about them – is a different matter altogether. End product? A team devoid of a gameplan with no idea how to attack and break down opponents.

Lack of a Plan B

Hodgson scoffed at the suggestion that Andy Carroll deserved consideration for an invite to England’s Chantilly knees-up. The question was put to him following his hat-trick against Arsenal for West Ham when he aerially bullied the centre-halves in a good old-fashioned English centre forward style. Hodgson would not be judging him on one match he said.

True, he is not one for the football purists – but the football purists should not be watching England anyway, the Iceland debacle would have taught them that if they hadn’t sussed it during the Euro group stages.

Carroll offers something different, something difficult to deal with and would have had more chance of scoring in the closing stages against Iceland as an option from the bench than the doubt-riddled strike-force on show because he offered an alternative style of play, a Plan B, another option. Maybe not an ideal one – but one that could have worked. As it was, it was muddled thinking following muddled thinking.

Lack of passion

Arsene Wenger is often bemused when he is asked why he does not show much passion or dish out instructions, rant and holler from the sidelines when Arsenal are struggling. Hodgson spent the 90 minutes England were labouring against Iceland seemingly trying to get food out of his teeth, the verbals utterly absent. The softly, softly approach has not worked for Wenger for a decade and it did not work with Hodgson. OK, the former England manager is not a ranter but to watch the Italy coach Antonio Conte inspiring and cajoling, kicking every ball, with Italy was to long for a manager boiling with passion.


 Would England have been as poor if Conte had been waiting for them? 
 (Getty)

It is hard to imagine England would have put in such an insipid performance with the incoming Chelsea coach waiting for them in the dressing room. The set-up has seemed far too friendly under Uncle Roy from the time he put his England slippers on.

The qualifying mask

Not entirely England’s fault this one but the fact that they cruised through the qualifying group with 10 wins out of 10 seemed to blind Hodgson to keeping faith with those players – even though some of them were out of form come tournament time: see above Barkley and Wilshere. England were never tested – Switzerland away was as hard as it got. The irony is that when it came to France, they couldn’t put away teams on a par with those they had beaten to get there.