Hodgson committed cardinal sin of doing nothing

Posted Saturday, March 30, 2013 by The Sun

Hodgson committed cardinal sin of doing nothing
MUCH TO THINK ABOUT ... Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson

MUCH has been made of Roy Hodgson’s performance in Podgorica — especially in the second half.

As is the beauty of the beautiful game, the whole country and his wife seem to have voiced opinions on what the England boss could and should have done to have prevented Montenegro from pegging back his players.

He could have done this, he should have done that — hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

But my biggest criticism is that he committed a cardinal sin by doing nothing in their 2014 World Cup qualifier on Tuesday. Not until it was too late anyway.

Maybe he had been stunned by his team’s display in the first half when they were excellent.

His formation and tactics started a treat, as we pressed high, passed the ball well and carved out several goalscoring opportunities.

Wayne Rooney’s header was scant reward for England’s dominance. Nobody could have complained had we gone in at the break at least one extra goal to the good.

The fact we were not, maybe should have set the alarm bells ringing in the away dressing room and dugout.

International football management is like a game of chess — you always need to be thinking two or three moves ahead. Even though we were leading 1-0 at half time and had dominated the game, Hodgson should have been contemplating the changes he would need to make to maintain England’s superiority.

After all, it was unlikely that in front of such a passionate home crowd, the hosts were going to be as tame in the second half as they were in the first — and they were not.

Hodgson’s decision not to make changes during the interval was understandable, given the way his team had played in the first half.

But after the restart it quickly became clear that the second half was going to be a totally different game.

Montenegro brought on Dejan Damjanovic and swapped things around.

England slackened off a bit and we found ourselves on the back foot as their two star attackers Stevan Jovetic and Mirko Vucinic came into their element.

As they grew in confidence and possession, the game began to slip away from us.
It wasn’t going well and something needed to be done.

Now I know as a manager that time can sometimes pass you by. That’s why I always used to ask my staff to give me a nudge when 10 or 15 minutes had gone, so I could make a change if required.

With the clock ticking and his team losing the upper hand, Hodgson had to make a call. He needed to decide if we were going to defend the lead — or spread the play wide and long, so we not restricted to playing within small spaces.

He could have even chosen both, as long as he got his team to retain the ball better.

Both Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley were looking increasingly tired and over-run in the middle of the park.

In Scott Parker and Frank Lampard, there were options on the bench who could have given England a much-needed boost.

The manager was the only one who could change things.

He had to do something — but he chose to do nothing.

He opted to leave things as they were and leave his team hanging on by their fingertips.

In the end, of course, England lost their grip and fell. It was only after Montenegro equalised in the 77th minute that Hodgson made his only substitution, sending on Ashley Young for Cleverley.

Changes arguably should have been implemented long before then. The more the second half went on the more England looked as though we needed freshening up.

Our physical condition and energy levels were not helped by us having to chase the ball as a result of our inability to retain possession. This match once again highlighted our inability to keep the ball.
Were we able to retain possession we would have made it so much easier on ourselves.

Instead of us chasing all the time it would have been the Montenegro players having to run for the ball.

That would made them tired and maybe Hodgson could have exploited that with some tactical changes.

It is not easy to make changes as England manager, especially when your team is leading.

Every decision you make is scrutinised and analysed a million times more than at club level. There is pressure that your next move could impact the whole country but you have to block that out.

If you do not win the game you are always going to be in the wrong regardless.

Montenegro might have earned a point even if Hodgson had made changes sooner.

His critics accuse him of not having a Plan B.

Well, when you are England manager you need a Plan C, D, E and F as well.

You need to be thinking of the changes you might need to make even before kick-off.

When I first became a manager somebody told me: “The game will always beat you because you can’t accommodate for everything.”

He was right.

But the more you prepare for, the less chance you have of being caught out.