Roy Hodgson's Master Plan

I watched most of the Germany v Northern Ireland game yesterday and the last time I saw a more one sided match was when my school team took on William Ellis and got beaten 14-0. If only we’d had Michael McGovern in goal instead of a short, overweight Jewish kid. The Northern Ireland keeper made seven or eight great saves and is the main reason that they’ve qualified for the last sixteen. Due to the rather convoluted draw, we don’t know whether they’ll be playing Wales or France as yet. Personally I hope it’s France in Paris, I think their fans deserve that. They may have been outclassed on the pitch but in the stands, they kept singing for the entire game. They’ve even got a song about one player (Will Griggs) who hasn’t spent a single second on the pitch. This is exactly what the Euros should be about.
I know people are starting to moan about the tournament going on a bit and I get that. I think we’re all ready for some clashes between major football nations and a bit of penalty heartbreak (we all know who THAT will be). But there haven’t been many bad games and it’s only going to get better. We seem to have moved on from the crowd trouble and now it’s all about thousands of people in replica shirts having a gigantic party. There are worse things going on in Europe right now.
Meanwhile, I read this sentence in the Guardian earlier today. “Roy Hodgson’s unsuccessful selection gamble in England’s final group game has left senior figures within the Football Association questioning whether he has made a serious error of judgment that could jeopardise the team’s progress and potentially have repercussions for his future as manager”.
I must say, senior figures in the FA can do one. These are presumably the same senior figures who appointed Steve McLaren. The same senior figures who paid Fabio Capello six million quid a year. The same senior figures who nobody’s ever heard of but pull in a six figure salary for what exactly?
Don’t get me wrong. I think reaching the quarter finals is the least I’d expect from this group of players and if we don’t, I’d blame the manager. I’m not sure Roy Hodgson is the right man for the job. Nobody is. But this is a young team with a big future and Roy is at least trying to do something different. (Have England ever dominated possession for three successive games at a major championships?) He might have made too many changes. He might have left Rooney out but it’s not like we played terribly and we did make chances. Incidentally, to ensure they got a result yesterday, Spain played the same eleven against Croatia as they did in the first two group games. They lost, which means that a tired Spain team will play Italy in the next round whereas at least some of our lot will have had a rest.