Roy Hodgson says new England faces have chance for Euro 2016 squad

• Manager suggests injured players may have to earn back their places
• Tottenham midfield duo Dier and Alli praised for taking their chance

Posted Thursday, November 19, 2015 by theguardian.com

Roy Hodgson says new England faces have chance for Euro 2016 squad
Roy Hodgson, left, shakes hands with Dele Alli after the midfielder’s goalscoring display against France at Wembley.

Roy Hodgson has warned the core of England players who have formed the bedrock of his team that his loyalty to them is being tested by the emergence of new recruits who are making him rethink the possible make-up of his squad for next summer’s European Championship.

Hodgson says Dele Alli and Eric Dier should now be considered realistic contenders to go to the tournament after their impressive introduction, putting pressure on some of the England manager’s established favourites such as Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere.

Seventeen players who would usually be in contention for Hodgson’s squad were missing from England’s 2-0 win against France on Tuesday and Hodgson admitted it had left him with a dilemma about whether he should put his faith in the younger call-ups who have filled the void or go back to the more experienced ones.

"When it comes to weighing up loyalty, it is an important quality and one should never dismiss the value of loyalty from player to coach and coach to player, but it is a world in which unfortunately if you want to keep your place in the team you have to be playing to a very high level, especially when other people are doing well around you," Hodgson said.

I would never be able to pick a team on loyalty alone. I would have to pick the best players at the time and at this moment someone like Dele Alli and Eric Dier. They maybe haven’t had a lot of publicity in terms of their chances up to now but I think they are going to get a lot of publicity for their chances going forward.

Hodgson, whose starting XI against France was the youngest he has ever selected with an average age of 24 years and 113 days, is hoping the Football Association can arrange three or four friendlies between the end of the domestic season and the start of the tournament on 10 June. As it is, England do not have another match until the friendly against Germany in Berlin on 26 March, followed by Holland’s visit to Wembley three days later, and Hodgson is hopeful the Premier League clubs will release their players for a winter get-together at St George’s Park.

Similar arrangements were abandoned last January after various clubs, most notably Chelsea, raised concerns about it impacting on their own plans but the FA’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, has already floated the idea during a meeting of the Premier League’s executives.

"I would like an afternoon or early evening with the players for two or three hours so we can go through what we have done in the Spain and France games and what we want to do going forward," Hodgson said. "I am hoping the clubs will go along with that. To be honest, there wasn’t an enormous amount of opposition to it last time around. With any luck, we will get an afternoon but it will have to be discussed with the clubs to make sure they think it is an afternoon that is right for them."

Hodgson’s next assignment will be the Euro 2016 draw in Paris on 12 December, when England will be among the top seeds with Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. That leaves them with a 50% chance of drawing Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, three of the six teams in pot four. “I will take what comes,” Hodgson said. "I respect Wales and both Ireland teams. There is a good chance we will get one of those but it is not something that pleases or displeases me. It is just a fact of life and whoever we get we will do our best to beat them."

Hodgson invited Mauricio Pochettino to Tuesday’s game and praised the Tottenham Hotspur manager afterwards for bringing through so many young English players at White Hart Lane. “Tottenham are very interesting for me to watch because when I go there I get to see as many as five Englishmen,” Hodgson said.

"There are some teams I go to watch when there isn’t one Englishman in the team. They might be a very good team who play nice football but they are not a lot of good to me because they don’t play Englishmen.

"So we are delighted that Tottenham have gone down this route and with Pochettino, in particular, for giving players a chance. He has shown his faith in them and it is perfect for us."