England’s Left-back Could Belong to Tottenham’s Rose
England manager, Roy Hodgson, has a good competition on his hands at the left-back position between Tottenham Hotspur’s Danny Rose and Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand. But an injury to Bertrand could have given Rose the starting job by default.
A slight injury forced Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand to miss the final warm-up game against Portugal and now his starting role could be in jeopardy with Tottenham left-back, Danny Rose, performing well recently and only a week left until England faces Russia next Saturday.
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According to Matt Law of the Telegraph, Ryan Bertrand is hopeful that he could return to training on Monday after receiving more treatment yesterday.
As for Roy Hodgson, he believes that the 26-year-old will actually be fit in time for their game against Russia on June 11th at Marseille. Which is quite optimistic actually as that’s really soon to return to the starting XI after suffering an injury, even if it’s minor.
Then again, with only four out-and-out full-backs on the final 23-man squad with Liverpool’s Nathaniel Clyne and Tottenham’s Kyle Walker at right-back and the aforementioned Bertrand and Rose at left-back, Hodgson is cutting it quite close with no much full-back depth.
While Everton’s John Stones and Tottenham’s Eric Dier could fill in at right-back in a pinch, the same can’t be said at left-back. Still, any injury or suspension in general will be bad for England and not just at one position.
The 68-year-old manager has tough decisions to make leading up to the Russia game next Saturday because Danny Rose has played well recently, especially against Portugal in a game that Bertrand could have started had he not been injured.
At midfield, Spurs’ duo of Dele Alli and Eric Dier are must-starts because of what they bring at their respective positions.
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Where that leaves the likes of Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Jack Wilshere is hard to figure out. Because first of all, it depends on the formation that Roy Hodgson will select. And Harry Kane has recently stated that there isn’t just one formation that they have been practicing with.
There’s at least two or three so there could be more central midfielders in a diamond formation or less if it’s a 4-3-3. Therefore it’s basically a toss-up at the midfield position. But as mentioned earlier, Alli and Dier must start, they can’t not both play off the bench.
One starting in the game and the other on the bench is fine, but if possible, both playing together would be the preferred option. They’ve built up quite the partnership this past season and taking full advantage of that is what Roy Hodgson should do.
Because the time for experimentation is over. Finalizing who makes the 18-man matchday squad and choosing the strongest possible starting XI against Russia is crucial to earning three points.
Since it’s to be expected that Wales and England will advance from the group stage, this makes it even more critical that the Three Lions start off on a good note and don’t go down early.
England came back to win 3-2 against Germany back on March 26th, but they can’t take that for granted and expect a repeat to happen should they concede first.
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Looking back at all the international friendlies that England have played this year since that Germany match, outside of the Netherlands and Turkey games, Roy Hodgson’s side hasn’t really been tested thus far.
The scorelines have been close once 90 minutes are up, but during the actual game, the Three Lions are the more dominant side. They’re brimming with confidence — which they should be — but again, there have been questions about whether things will work out, personnel wise.
The attacking trio of Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney is one such example, and that’s England’s three best strikers who have scored plenty of goals between them. But in one game (yes just one, with the Euros starting next week) they didn’t look good together. And that kind of uncertainty is not good.