UEFA Euro 2012 Preview: England

Fabio Capello is gone and the FA basically had to choose between Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson for the vacant job and they decided the latter. With Hodgson commanding the team, we can expect England to play “for the result” instead of trying to build an attracting style of football. We can’t criticize the FA selection because with just one month away from the competition, there isn’t time to implement a new tactic or a new system, so the obvious decision was Hodgson’s simple approach of the game. Besides that, England has a big list of injuries for this competition: Jack Wilshere, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Gary Cahill, while Wayne Rooney is suspended and he will miss the first two games of the tournament. England has a recent story of disappointments, but for this tournament, hardly anyone expects great things from England.

Hodgson is using a typical 4-4-2 formation with all his players except the two forwards positioned behind the ball when England doesn’t have the ball. They don’t look comfortable with the ball possession, rather they prefer to lay back and offer the ball possession to the opponent just to have the chance to play a direct style of football based on quick transitions.

Danny Welbeck and Ashley Young will likely be the starting forwards until Wayne Rooney returns and both players aren’t top class forwards, but their speed and explosiveness are a great fit in the team’s style. 

The midfield doesn’t look impressive at all. Gone are the days where Beckham, Scholes, Lampard on his prime and Gerrard dominated this area of the field. This English version features Gerrard as the primary player and he is still a dangerous player, but alone he can’t perform a miracle. Their wings aren’t impressive as well. Milner is a working hard winger, but he lacks creativity while Hodgson is yet to find the other winger between Walcott, Downing and Chamberlain. 

England isn’t in the group of teams favored to win Euro 2012 and they look comfortable by being the underdog:

“I’d refer you to the Danes in 1992 and the Greeks in 2004,” Hodgson said, when asked if England stood a chance of winning the competition. 

Strenght(s):

• Defense: Joe Hart is coming from a good season in Manchester City and he gives England some stability to one of the most usual weaknesses of the National Team in the last years; Their back four formation is strong defensively and if Gary Cahill didn't get injury, we would be talking about 3 players of the same club playing together in Cole-Terry-Cahill, while the right back Glen Johnson is also a former Chelsea player. Lescott will pair with Terry and this defensive unit is solid in my opinion even though their wings can’t offer much help offensively

Weakness(es):

• Creativity: the lack of creativity is quite evident especially when Rooney missing the first two games. Don’t expect much from England with the ball possession for long stretches of time, instead expect them to trying to capitalize in fast break chances and in set pieces; 
• Depth: with all the injuries, England doesn’t have a good core of back up players and most importantly those players are inexperienced and they didn’t have the proper to adjust and build a good chemistry.