Blame Hodgson for England's loss
Our analyst tells GARY LIM the England boss should have started with Lallana and Barkley
GROUP D
URUGUAY 2
(Luis Suarez 39, 85)
ENGLAND 1
(Wayne Rooney 75)
What do you think of Roy Hodgson's tactics against Uruguay? Would you have done things differently if you were in the shoes of the England manager?
PARKER: I was disappointed that he started with the same team that lined up against Italy.
They were not good enough against the Italians before he made the second-half substitutions, so I found it hard to understand why he chose the same side again. And it proved to be the wrong decision.
Once again, England began to play better after Hodgson made his substitutions after the break.
Once Ross Barkley and Adam Lallana came on, England began to look more composed on the ball.
Lallana is a player who can keep the ball as well as go past his marker.
Barkley runs at defenders, and has the ability to open things up, like Paul Gascoigne used to do for England.
Until they came on, England lacked the cutting edge.
It was also a poor decision to put Jordan Henderson in the role that he was given.
He should be asked to make more runs into the penalty box, not to pass the ball around like a playmaker.
Henderson did well for Liverpool because Brendan Rodgers saw his strengths and weaknesses, whereas Hodgson didn't. That's the difference.
Wayne Rooney finally scored his first World Cup Finals goal, but were you impressed by his performance?
P: Okay, he scored a goal, but he didn't do enough. He had to be involved in the game more.
What we saw at this World Cup from Rooney were mere flashes of what he is capable of.
Hodgson should have made him stay higher up the pitch.
But Rooney was constantly dropping deep, trying to dictate the game like Italy's Andrea Pirlo, but he doesn't have Pirlo's qualities.
He needs to play higher up, where he can exert more influence on the game.
Luis Suarez absolutely demolished England, didn't he?
P: Yes, he scored two great goals in the game.
He might not be fully fit but he was sharp as usual.
He didn't look too mobile but you could see how good his finishing was.
He gave Uruguay the edge.
Don't get me wrong, England played well. They may be on the verge of elimination but they have put in decent performances.
Uruguay were not that much better than them.
But they were clinical, and that largely had to do with Suarez's presence.
Do you think Suarez was made to look good by England's central defence pairing of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka?
P: No. Some people may say that the two Suarez goals could be prevented but England's defence is what it is.
Uruguay impressed with their movement in the penalty box. England were quite static in that sense.
Following two straight losses, what does the future hold for the Three Lions?
P: They are not out of the tournament yet.
But I hope that, with one group match against Costa Rica left, Hodgson will give players like Lallana and Barkley a chance to shine from the start.
This is the next generation of England players and they have excellent ability and potential.
Whether or not they will eventually come good remains to be seen.
But they have proved, when they came on as substitutes in the past two matches, that they have the ability.
- Paul Parker is a former England and Manchester United defender who won two EPL titles and earned 19 caps for his country.
Our chances are unbelievably slim. It will depend of course on Italy winning their next two matches and winning by a number of goals, and us beating Costa Rica by the requisite number of goals scored. To be sure of continuing, we needed a result today, a draw or a victory, and we didn’t get it.
- Roy Hodgson
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