England’s manager Roy Hodgson has been praised by a number of critics for making the right changes to his side, as he helped the team turn around the game and win by three goals to two.
The team took on Sweden last night, in a game that was bound to be an interesting fight between the two sides.
The match saw Andy Carroll score for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 and give the team the lead. However, as the match progressed, Sweden bounced back into the match and scored two quick goals to take the lead in the game.
Just when it seemed like things had gone downhill for the team, the manager went on to decide to bring on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873 and mix things up.
While the change was being made, a number of people criticized the manager’s decision, as they felt he didn’t know what he was doing.
However, once Walcott did come on, he went on to score a goal from distance and then set up http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danny-Welbeck-c10233 to score the match winner.
As a result, it seems like Hodgson actually knew what he was doing, since his tactical change and decision to add pace to the game helped the team pick up a win in some very undesirable circumstances.
Despite the fact that the team went on to win the game, what they need to learn from the game, is how to defend set pieces. Both the goals that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sweden-c3015 scored came from a dead ball situation and despite the English side having some decent sized players, they
just couldn’t keep out their opponents in the game.
Should Hodgson help the team go on and develop a much better tactical awareness at the back, he could potentially guide the team much further than they were expected to go.
At the same time, despite only being manager of the team for such a short period of time, what Hodgson has done, is that he has ended a run of nearly forty years, where England ailed to beat Sweden in a competitive fixture.
It is now a wait to see just how far Hodgson and his England side go in the Euro 2012.
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