Euro 2016: Roy Hodgson comes out fighting to defend himself as he fights to save his England job
Future on the line against Iceland but Three Lions boss insists he has made right calls in France
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ROY HODGSON has come out fighting — knowing his job is on the line.
The England boss delivered a defiant message after the backlash over his tinkering against Slovakia on Monday.
He insisted he had no regrets over making six changes for the 0-0 draw in Saint-Etienne.
With his contract up after the tournament and the FA undecided on whether to offer him a new deal, Hodgson insisted that his runners-up were “clearly the best team” in Group B.
Hodgson knows the last-16 clash with stubborn Scandinavians Iceland tomorrow is now win or bust for him.
He added: “Regrets? No. They weren’t wholesale changes from the team that finished the game against Wales.
“And that team, which won the game in the second half against Wales if I remember correctly, was applauded and people thought it was the right team.
“So I don’t really understand that side of it.
“I don’t understand the full-backs being criticised — because Tottenham don’t play Danny Rose and Kyle Walker three times in a week. They play two others.
“You have a national team with players like Nathaniel Clyne and Ryan Bertrand.
"And I would suggest that Nathaniel had a very, very good game against Slovakia. I don’t see what the point is.
“We should have won all three games, shouldn’t we? But we only have ourselves to blame for not getting the results that we wanted and should have had. It’s all about the results.
“I thought we were clearly the best team in the group — but we didn’t win it because we didn’t take our chances and we didn’t get enough points, you never know what to expect from tournaments.”
In fairness to Hodgson, Jordan Henderson also had a decent game replacing Dele Alli in midfield in Saint-Etienne, while Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge stepped up from the bench after scoring against Wales.
Hodgson accepts the one call that could be questioned is resting his skipper Wayne Rooney in a match England needed to win to top the group.
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Although Rooney came off the bench with half an hour to play, Hodgson, 68, passionately defended his decision — insisting he would finish his explanation.
He snapped: “Just one second. I have to go through the history first, otherwise I just accept nonsense that is said and written — and I don’t often get a chance to put things right.
“So we’re talking about one man. And that is amusing to me because of all the players that I’ve actually had to stand up and put my neck on the line for and say:
‘I don’t care what anyone else thinks — Wayne Rooney is going to the Euros, Wayne is our captain and Wayne is going to play’.
“And now we didn’t score against Slovakia — despite 29 shots and 15 corners and God knows what else — because Wayne didn’t play more than 30 minutes.
“Well, excuse me. I find it hard to go along with that argument — that I should now regret the fact I didn’t start with Rooney or that I didn’t start with Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling.
“If I had started with them and lost the game, I would have been criticised. At the end of the game you can play well or play badly.
“We won all three of our preparation games. I don’t think we played particularly well in any of the three — but we won them.
“So everyone was hunky-dory. Here, in my opinion, we’ve played better. I think it bodes well for the future, what we’re doing here.
“But we haven’t won all the games, so therefore results are bad, so therefore we are bad.”
The missing ingredient according to Hodgson, is a killer instinct.
He had a pop at his strikers in training during the week to try to sharpen them up.
Hodgson added: “The other day we ended up with four forwards on the field and a period of intense domination, we still couldn’t score.
“So the fact is at the moment we haven’t had that killer instinct, we haven’t had ruthlessness, which would have got us the goals — only one goal was necessary — to have won against Russia and Slovakia.
“We paid the price for that by not topping the group.
“We have a lot of goalscorers in the team. If they didn’t have that quality, then they wouldn’t have scored the goals which they have done up until now.
“But we haven’t scored enough in the games here and therefore criticism will be directed at me and the players because instead of winning games, which we’ve controlled, we’ve drawn them. We haven’t got the results.”
One win from three group games may not be enough for the FA when it comes to Hodgson’s contract.
He desperately needs his side to find that killer instinct to break down the Ice men.