Almost the entire country is critical of his selections for Slovakia game, but, Roy Hodgson is not feeling as if he made any sort of mistake by playing the XI that he played.at Saint Etienne on Monday night.
That decision is not giving Hodgson sleepless nights. He says even that second string unit he used was always on top of the opposition. If the new faces had been lethargic and not in control of the game, he might have wondered if he was correct or not but, they were dominating from the first to the last minute. So, it was alright.
As per England supremo, he did not want any of his players who had already had full 90-minute appearances in the last two matches to push themselves any further as a little more of playing time might have broken them down which, entering the important phases of the competition, would not have held the Three Lions in a confident state.
Reflecting on the point that three points off Slovakia might have got England a weaker opposition in the pre quarters as in that scenario, they would not be facing off against any of the top two sides of the 6 groups, but, against one of the four no. 3s, Hodgson says that someone ending as no. 3 would not always be weaker than the no. 2 in a given group.
In the opinion of Hodgson, England has actually been better than he had thought, but, sometimes, despite playing well, a team does not have that much to show and that is the situation at the moment. Goals are lacking and its inviting criticism. But, the coach believes, barring any drop in energy, his players would hand someone a crushing of a loss down the road.