Roy Hodgson: I needed extra England forwards for Euro 2016 knockouts

The 68-year-old has been pigeon-holed by many as a reserved manager, so raised eyebrows by naming a squad awash with forward options for France.


Hodgson selected just three out-and-out centre-backs in order to maximise the available attacking strength in depth - a decision that paid dividends as England secured an exhilarating 2-1 win against Wales on Thursday.

He was quoted saying;

"When I selected the 23, people looked at the 23 and there will always be people with opinions," the England manager said. One of the things that was said was there were only seven out and out defenders but extra midfielders and attackers. But we deliberately went that way because we think in tournaments, that's what you need. They evolve quickly and they are knock out games. It is nice that people have praised us for our boldness but if we had drawn or lost, it wouldn't have made any difference to what we would have had to have done against Slovakia."


Culled from;standard.co.uk
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