Former England manager Roy Hodgson has finally spoken out on England's disastrous Euro 2016 campaign, in which all of his chosen international players let down the entire country with a 2-1 loss to minnows Iceland.
In a questionableview of the all-aroundsubject, Hodgson seems to criticise the players for not taking responsibility for the messages that coaches are giving for the purpose of tactics.
Roy Hodgson asked England players to recite his instructions back to him to make sure they understood https://t.co/LMwZldXTK9 pic.twitter.com/lPEGSQ9ryd
One of the things I've learned in the last two years was overestimating players' understanding of exactly what you want,� Hodgson said in UEFA coaching magazineThe Technician. You have to make certain that they themselves take ownership of the situation."
We will work on it in training but then I want the player in the unit meeting, when he sees fit, to say: ˜I should have gone out there; I should have gone quicker there.' Or ˜I've gone too fast. I should have slowed down there. I've gone so quickly. That the guy's gone past me before I can hold him up with the ball.' That type of thing. We got the players to take ownership.�
That being said, Hodgson came under fire for his decision to rotate half the team for England's final group match against Slovakia. England had to win the game to qualify as leaders, but could only play out a 0-0 bore draw. Iceland went on to embarrass the Three Lions in the next game.
Hodgson also had advice for coaches about the written media, who put an unacceptable amount of scrutiny on the England players and staff whenever it comes to the country's performance on the international stage. It is as if they want England to fail.
With 128,000 tweets a minute, Iceland beating England in the Euros was UK Twitter's event of the year https://t.co/g4ZBSF1BhR
The written press is very dangerous. They can take the words that you say and make it seem very different to how it actually was but you can't beat them. You've got to avoid the temptation to get a sort of revenge the next time you are in front of that media group when you read something you didn't like.�