Roy Hodgson: Young players need more games to compete at highest level

Roy Hodgson

England boss Roy Hodgson is concerned about the lack of playing time afforded to England’s young players in the Premier League.

Hodgson was put-off by suggestions that lack of international success over the summer saw the national-team switching to old school type football: “When I read that the Under-21′s went out because they played kick-and-rush football, I wondered what the hell people were being fed,” he said. “That’s nothing like the truth, and as England manager I have an interest in the truth. I am fully aware of how the world works but I don’t know where those headlines came from. One of these days one of these articles will have some relevance to football, instead of just saying: ‘We’re no good, we can’t produce players,’ all the time’.”

The England manager believes that too many of England’s youth are being held back in the reserves of their respective teams and because of this, they lacked the experience to adjust to playing football at the highest level.

“I saw a television programme the other day talking about there being 240 English players in the Premier League,” Hodgson says. “They must be including a lot of players I have never heard of, because I can’t name that many. If we are talking about players who could play for England then they need to be starting regularly for their club’s first team, or young players like Ross Barkley or Raheem Sterling who are already so good that their coaches are pretty keen to get them on to the pitch. I would defy anyone to come up with 240 names. I don’t think, frankly, you would be able to manage more than 30 or 40.”

England face Moldova and Ukraine, respectively, in the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.