HODGSON TRUSTS IN THREE

Roy Hodgson has surprised everyone by calling up only three central defenders in his provisional squad for the Euro 2016. This has been seen as a low number especially for major tournaments like the Euro 2016.

However, the former Liverpool boss has defended his selection by claiming that it allows him to pick an additional attacking midfielder. There is an opinion that Hodgson is giving biased towards offence rather than defence; he has never worked in such a manner as he has always been a defensive coach. Hodgson, though, has earned a lot of respect after an impeccable qualification campaign.

The recent win over world champions Germany did no harm to his reputation as well. However, doing well in a major tournament is what counts the most when being the England manager. The team has underperformed since winning the World Cup in 1966.

Recent major tournaments have recently been very poor with the team getting out of the World Cup 2014 at the group stages. The manager also seems to have favoured youth over experience, as he has called up Manchester United youngster Marcus Rashford over the experienced duo of Jermain Defoe or Arsenal winger Theo Walcott. In spite of England's matches being the most sought after by fans (click here to see if there are any tickets available), England remain outsiders to win the Championships.

Hodgson only recently suggested that Rashford had little experience be called up at the moment. “Eric Dier can, if necessary, step back and play there. That was his original position. He spent most of his career playing centre-back before he moved into central midfield. Any time you ask someone to move where they have not necessarily been playing on a regular basis is a bit of an ask, but how much cover can you get? Take the last World Cup when the Germans had two centre-backs who played every game. I do believe Cahill, Smalling and Stones are good centre-backs,” said the England manager.