Time for numbers to finally add up for Hodgson

So low-key has the build-up to England’s first meeting with the Republic of Ireland in 18 years been, in fact, that there is an argument to suggest it is by some distance the third most important football match to be played at the national stadium inside the past week.

However, while it maybe lacks the cachet of being the richest game in club football with a £120m prize at stake for the Premier League bound winners or the prestige that comes with winning the Champions League final, tonight’s friendly is the first of three opportunities for Roy Hodgson to fine-tune his best XI before the qualifiers that could go a long way towards deciding how history will remember the England manager.

The first 12 months of his reign have, largely, been characterised by experimentation. A cast list of 45 players in 15 games underlines that point, as does an additional eight having been called up but not given any time on the pitch.

In contrast, Sven Goran Eriksson fielded 72 players in his 67 matches, while Fabio Capello’s 42-game reign saw 63 players pull on the Three Lions.

Neither man, of course, brought the required success to the national team but there is an argument to suggest that stability should be the target for England in an upcoming trio of friendlies that also include Sunday’s clash with Brazil and the August 14 meeting with Scotland at Wembley.

To that end, yesterday’s press briefing was a far from ideal start with confusion initially reigning over the issue of who would captain the team.

With regular captain Steven Gerrard out injured, the armband would usually pass to Frank Lampard. Instead, it will go to Ashley Cole in recognition of the full-back having earlier this season joined the exclusive club of England internationals with 100 or more caps to their name.

The confusion arose when Hodgson told the assembled media: “Frank has always been the captain in Steve’s absence. I appointed him when I started over a year ago.

“But in actual fact, Frank and I have discussed this and Frank’s happy for Ashley to lead the team onto the field (against the Republic) in celebration of his 100th cap.

“It is actually his 102nd appearance. Frank and I are happy that he will lead the team out there but Frank still remains the captain of the team.”

Later pressed on the issue and asked if a situation where Cole fulfils his duties before kick-off and then passes on the job to Lampard would not be seen as rather comical, Hodgson clarified matters by insisting that the Chelsea left-back would, in fact, be captain for the entire night.

It is to be hoped England, whose last meeting with Ireland in Dublin was abandoned due to violence in the stands, are much more certain of their jobs both tonight and again in Rio on Sunday as there is precious little time to iron out any problems before the World Cup qualifying campaign resumes in September with the visit of Moldova.

Hodgson needs to have hit upon a settled side by then, as at the moment there are simply too many unanswered questions.

Who, for instance, should partner Wayne Rooney up front? Or even, should Rooney be considered first choice after an indifferent end to the domestic season?

The answer to the latter poser is likely to be to the affirmative, leaving Danny Welbeck – so impressive at international level but with just two goals in 39 appearances in a Manchester United shirt this season – and Daniel Sturridge likely to fight it out to partner Rooney.

At the back, England also need to settle on a regular centre-back partnership now that the John Terry-Rio Ferdinand era is finally over. Hodgson favours a Phil Jones-Chris Smalling defensive axis but that will be out of the question in this week’s two friendlies due to the latter being injured.

For Jones, a start tonight in the position where he made his name with Blackburn Rovers would be welcome. Just one of his five senior appearances with England has come at centre half, and even then it was for less than half an hour after being brought off the bench to replace Smalling in last year’s 3-2 home defeat to Holland.

Otherwise, Jones has played as a right-back and a holding midfielder for his country – positions he has also had to occupy for Manchester United due to the presence of Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Jonny Evans. Tonight, however, he is expected to line up alongside former Sheffield United defender Phil Jagielka and the pair will be tested by Robbie Keane, who will captain the visitors fresh from a hat-trick in LA Galaxy colours last weekend.

As for the Irish, tonight is the first of four games for Giovanni Trapattoni’s men before their 2012-13 season ends but there is no place in the starting line-up for the Hull City quartet of David Meyler, Stephen Quinn, Robbie Brady and Paul McShane.

Instead, Trapattoni has opted to partner John O’Shea and Sean St Ledger at the back while Aiden McGeady and Jon Walters will play either side of James McCarthy and Glenn Whelan in midfield.

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