Hodgson delivers World Cup selection challenge

The Three Lions booked their place at next year’s finals in Brazil with a 2-0 victory over Poland on Tuesday night at Wembley.

Goals from Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard removed the dreaded spectre of England having to qualify via the play-offs, whereby they would next month have had to beat one from France, Sweden, Iceland or Romania over two legs.

Avoiding such a scenario means England can now arrange two friendlies for November’s international break, with Germany set to visit Wembley along with unnamed non-European opposition. Details of those two games are expected to be confirmed later today.

Next year will then see Hodgson’s side play four further warm-up fixtures, starting with Denmark at Wembley on March 5 and including two outings in America during the final fortnight before the World Cup gets under way in Sao Paulo on June 12.

With England having to submit their final 23-man squad to FIFA 10 days before the opening ceremony, that means time is limited for those wanting to guarantee their place on the plane. Hodgson, though, has insisted everyone will be given a chance.

He said: “We have got a month before we play the next set of games. The good thing about friendly matches is that you get a lot of opportunities to change. Six substitutions vis a vis three is vital.

“Three substitutions boils down normally to two because you have to keep one up your sleeve to a very late stage. We have an opportunity.

“I imagine my attitude to the friendly matches won’t be a lot different to the friendly matches we have played so far. I would point out it has not been an easy ride for this England team.

“We have faced Brazil twice, two Home Nations (Scotland and Ireland), Sweden away, Norway away, and Belgium at home. That is a pretty tough run so we haven’t given ourselves an easy task.

“We have had some pressure on us at all times because of the quality of opponents.”

With attention having inevitably started to turn towards next summer, Hodgson faces many big decisions. Should, for instance, England remain as bold as they were in the final two qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland?

Other questions that Hodgson will be asked countless times in the coming weeks and months include whether Leighton Baines should now get the nod ahead of Ashley Cole, does Andros Townsend keep his place when others are fit and should he go for youth over experience once the tournament gets under way?

On the subject of whether England will be as attack-minded next summer as they have been over the past week, Hodgson said: “How bold you are depends on the players available and the fact is that (Daniel) Sturridge is a bold player.

“He he has shown Liverpool how well he can do and what his qualities are but he has only recently become available.

“The same applies to Jack Wilshere, he is a great talent and can change games. But he can only help when he was there and he has not been there.”

As for whether youth may hold sway over experience, Hodgson last night added: “With regards to the players, you are not going to jettison any players light-heartedly.

“These players have done extremely well so far for the team. I will be monitoring them and working with them and we will see what happens when the time comes.

“I think it could be a very difficult decision in terms of selection. We’ve got a lot of very good young players coming through and we have still got the good old guard ready and able to play as well.

“It is not going to be an easy time. That will give me lots of reason for thought. But, at the moment, I don’t think I’ll bother quite so much about it on October 16.”

After a stuttering campaign that only truly came to life in the final two games, England are unsurprisingly not ranked among the favourites to lift the World Cup.

Hodgson said: “Can we win the World Cup? It is pretty obvious we are not favourites to win the World Cup. I don’t know. It will depend. We will do the best we can. I’ve said from the start I was really pleased we are going to be a part of it. I’ll worry about whether we can win it later on.”

As for who he fancies to do well in South America – a continent where European teams have traditionally struggled – the England manager added: “I would say (the main contenders are) Brazil and Argentina from South America.

“Of the Europeans, I go along with everyone else – it is Spain and Germany who will be the favourites. I don’t know enough about the Africans and the Asians to even hazard a guess.”

Asked if it was possible for a European team to triumph in Brazil, Hodgson replied: “They haven’t done yet but anything is possible, isn’t it? No-one thought it would be possible for Greece to win (Euro 2004) in Portugal or for Denmark when they got their players off the beaches in 1992 in Sweden. But they did. Every year that goes by gets that little bit harder and its harder to get beyond the favourites and the top teams.

“I am pretty sure that all the European teams that go there are rather hoping they can be the first one to reverse this trend and be the first to win there.”