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Hatching a Plan for England to Make Bold Statement in Euro 2016 Opener v Russia
Published: June 3, 2016
Three wins from three is a satisfactory return from the mini-tour around the country scheduled by manager Roy Hodgson. However, the last of these, Thursday's 1-0 win over Portugal at Wembley Stadium, posed the kind of questions few were expecting to be asking at this stage.
These chiefly related to an attack that, while bold on paper, ended up minimising the potential impact of its components. If England are to make a strong opening statement against Russia, they must move back to a setup more conducive to the energy and greater improvisation that has characterised their most impressive recent performances.
Heading into his previous two major tournaments as Three Lions boss, Hodgson has used the final friendly to field what was more or less his starting XI for the first game. Taking the lineup against Portugal as a cue for what may follow, the idea of deploying three of his most renowned forwards evidently appeals.
As it was, the selection of (from left to right) Jamie Vardy, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane felt less a show of intent and more a compromise that did nobody any favours.
Without the ball, they shaped up as a front three. Their number and discipline maintaining it was sufficient enough to make the Portugal defence think twice about advancing carelessly, but they were not so aggressive as to make Ricardo Carvalho and company uncomfortable.
This shape gave way a little when the wide men, Vardy and Kane, were forced back and substantially so in possession when Rooney increasingly dropped off.
Speaking afterward about this use of "split strikers," Hodgson made a logical, somewhat convincing case for the system. Per the Guardian's Dominic Fifield:
If you play with them both through the middle with Rooney ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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