Roy Hodgson tells England to banish negativity after World Cup failure
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Version 0 of 1. When the England squad gather on Sunday night for the start of a new campaign, the required mood of a fresh chapter will be a difficult tone to set. Roy Hodgson is acutely aware that a World Cup hangover feeling could cloud the atmosphere, and he intends to sit down with his players to try to draw a line under the Brazil experience. “Unfortunately, the negativity from the outside does impact,” he says. “You’ve got to be mentally strong. We’ve got to deal with it. We can’t turn the clock back and can’t play those two games [against Italy and Uruguay] again. It’s happened. One can’t be flippant and say: ‘Forget all about it.’ We’re not going to forget about it. But these players must make certain that they don’t allow that negativity to impact on them – otherwise it’s going to ruin their chances.” Hodgson is particularly keen to make sure some of the younger members of the squad who were part of the disappointment in Brazil are not labelled or feel in some way responsible for what happened. “Jack Wilshere played one game against Costa Rica. Jordan Henderson only came into the national team just before the World Cup. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain never kicked a ball. Raheem Sterling only played a couple of games. There’s no reason for them to take the whole burden of the World Cup on their shoulders,” he says. “They must accept: ‘Well, we’re sad because we were there too but here we go again, let’s make certain we’re going to embrace that chance.’ And one day when we do qualify for 2016 – and we will qualify –then it’ll be interesting what this group can do.” This is not the most straightforward assignment for a conspicuously inexperienced group to throw themselves into. Hodgson is even a little wary that Wednesday’s friendly against Norway in front of a relatively meagre Wembley crowd will be a challenge, never mind the toughest of the group games for Euro 2016 qualification, in Switzerland a week on Monday. “They will be tough and well organised and it will be a very tough game,” he says. “There’s a mood of negativity. Some critics want to punish us because of what happened in the World Cup. There’s nothing I can do about that, but it won’t help our boys. Because they’ll go out against Norway and however well prepared we’ve got them, however keen they are to do well, they won’t find it easy, because Norway aren’t a bad team. Anything other than a thrashing of Norway won’t be particularly well received but if you ask me now: ‘Are you going to go out and thrash Norway?’ I’d have to say: ‘No, I don’t think we are.’” The lack of international knowhow is conspicuous in the group selected in the aftermath of a string of recent international retirements. Without Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney’s numbers, in terms of caps and goals, towers above everybody else in the squad. Although Hodgson is keen to talk up a sense of possibility, and clings to the hope that the newer players will grasp the moment and a team of the future can be built around players such as Sterling, Wilshere and Henderson, it was telling that he asked if Lampard would reconsider quitting when he returned to Premier League duty with Manchester City. He spoke a lot to Gerrard and Lampard during the World Cup about their aspirations. “Frank actually confided with me at a fairly early opportunity that he was planning to go to New York and to start a new life over there. And I immediately discussed how will that affect your England future. So when he then came back to Man City to do the period of time there, I immediately contacted him again and asked him: ‘What are you thinking?’” Lampard’s decision was not for turning, which leaves Hodgson with a group that has lost the influence of its captain and vice-captain at a stroke. Hodgson’s focus now is on making the best of a young group. “My thoughts are very simple: help these young players get over the disappointment of the World Cup, make certain we keep our focus where it should be and not allow a couple of results which went badly to totally blast out of the water all the things we want to do and believe in. The situation is as it is. We have to learn to work with that. There are a group of young lads here who have got to learn to be mentally strong. They are coming into an environment that isn’t as positive as we’d like it to be because of the World Cup. But we can’t change it. Let’s get on with it.” |